FAFSA citizenship error claiming my daughter is not a US citizen - anyone else?

So frustrated right now! I was filling out the 2025-26 FAFSA this morning for my daughter (who was born in Iowa and has never left the country except for a cruise to Mexico 3 years ago). Everything was going fine until I got to the citizenship section, and the system is somehow saying she isn't a US citizen! I triple-checked her Social Security number and birthdate - everything is correct. I even re-entered all her information, but still getting the same error. Has anyone else experienced this glitch today? Is the system having problems? I'm worried this will delay her financial aid processing and she really needs that money for fall semester.

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21 comments

Yara Khalil

This is actually a common issue with the new FAFSA system. There are a few things that might be causing it: 1. The Social Security Administration database might not be confirming citizenship status correctly 2. There could be a mismatch in how your daughter's name appears in different government systems (SSA vs birth certificate) 3. Sometimes the system has temporary verification issues My recommendation is to take screenshots of the error, then try again tomorrow. If it persists, you'll need to contact Federal Student Aid directly. You can also submit the form with the error and then provide citizenship verification documents later during the verification process, but that will delay processing.

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Paolo Esposito

I work in my college's financial aid office, and we've seen this issue quite a bit with the new FAFSA. The citizenship verification system is extremely sensitive to mismatches. A few recommendations: 1. Double-check that her name is entered exactly as it appears on her Social Security card (including hyphens, spaces, etc.) 2. Verify the SSN is correct (obviously) 3. Make sure you're not using any special characters in the name fields 4. Try clearing your browser cache or using a different browser If none of that works, you'll need to submit the FAFSA anyway and then provide citizenship documentation during verification. Your daughter will likely need to show her birth certificate or passport to the financial aid office at her school.

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Amina Toure

I had the same issue but I couldn't get through to anyone on the FSA helpline - was on hold for 2+ hours before getting disconnected! Super frustrating. I finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that held my place in line and got me connected to an actual human at FSA in about 20 minutes. The agent confirmed it was a system glitch affecting lots of people and manually overrode it in my application. They have a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ - totally worth it to avoid the endless waiting.