FAFSA approved then rejected for missing signatures - how is this possible?

omg YES! the EXACT same thing happened to us with my daughter's application! Submitted in January, showed processed in studentaid.gov but then her dream school said it had no signatures. We had to go back in and do the signature page again. So frustrating!

Did you just have to sign it or redo the whole application? I'm getting different answers from everyone I talk to!

This is a known issue with the 2025-2026 FAFSA. The system sometimes marks applications as complete even with missing signatures. You don't need to redo the entire application - just log in to studentaid.gov, go to your submitted FAFSA, and there should be an option to add missing signatures. Look for the

Thank you! Just checked and I do see that link. Weird that it showed as fully processed though - that seems like a major system flaw.

The 'Provide Missing Information' thing doesn't always work tho. My nephew tried that 3 times and it kept saying error. Had to call FSA directly which took FOREVER

The Department of Education royally screwed up this year's FAFSA rollout!!! This signature issue is just ONE of many problems. My daughter's application has been \

I feel your pain. We're in the same boat - submitted in January and still showing as \

someone told me you can just electronically sign it again without starting over. thats what we did and it worked after like 3 days

This is a technical issue with the FSA ID authentication system not properly recording signatures even when they were submitted. I work in financial aid and we're seeing this with about 15% of applications. Here's what you need to do:\n\n1. Log into studentaid.gov\n2. Select your 2025-2026 FAFSA application\n3. Click on \

Thank you for the detailed steps! Just tried this and it seems to be working. Do you know if we'll get some kind of confirmation when the signatures are properly recorded?

Yes, you should receive an updated Student Aid Report (SAR) by email within 3-5 days that shows the signatures have been recorded. The status will change to \

Will do. This whole process has been so much more complicated than when I applied to college!

I went through this last month with my twins applications!! the financial aid office at both schools were super confused because the FAFSA was showing as processed on their end too. turns out something about the signature database not syncing right with the main FAFSA system. so frustrating!! we had to redo signatures and it took like 10 days to reprocess which almost made us miss priority deadline at one school. they really need to fix all these bugs!!

After trying to contact Federal Student Aid for two weeks about a similar issue with my FAFSA (kept getting busy signals or disconnected), I finally used Claimyr (claimyr.com) and got through to an agent in about 10 minutes. They confirmed this signature issue is happening a lot and walked me through fixing it on the spot. They have a video demo of how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ\n\nThe agent I spoke with said the system sometimes separates the signature verification from the application processing, and they're working on a fix. At least I got it resolved before our school's deadline!

Thank you for the suggestion! I just tried calling the regular number again and got disconnected after 45 minutes on hold. I'll check this out - at this point I just need to talk to a real person who can help.

my cousin works for a college financial aid dept and she said this is happening ALL THE TIME this year. its a glitch where the system thinks signatures went thru but they actually didnt. super annoying!

does anyone know if this affects the SAI calculation at all? or is it just a technical issue with the signatures part?

It doesn't affect the SAI calculation at all. The system calculates your SAI based on the financial information you entered. The signature issue is purely a verification/authentication problem on the technical side. Your aid eligibility remains the same - the school just needs a properly signed FAFSA to legally award the aid.

oh thats good to know! thanks!

Just to add to the great advice already here - if you continue having trouble with the signature page after trying to correct it online, you can also print, sign, and mail a signature page as a backup option. It's not the fastest solution, but it's there if the electronic method continues to fail. \n\nHere's how:\n1. Log in to studentaid.gov\n2. Go to your FAFSA application\n3. Select \

That's good to know as a backup plan. I'm hoping the electronic correction works, but I'll keep this in mind if we run into more issues. Thanks!