FAFSA completion confusion - do both parents need separate logins for joint tax filers?

The financial aid officer is giving you incorrect information. For the 2025-2026 FAFSA, only ONE parent needs to complete the parent portion, even if you're married filing jointly. The new simplified FAFSA specifically changed this to reduce complexity - previously both parents sometimes needed to sign, but not anymore. The confirmation screen and your daughter receiving her SAI are good indicators everything was done correctly. The system wouldn't calculate an SAI if crucial signatures were missing. I work in a college financial aid office, and we've seen plenty of correctly completed applications with just one parent completing the parent portion for joint filers. Your application is fine as submitted!

ok so my brother just went thru this last month and the same thing happened!!!! they said both parents need to sign but then his SAI showed up anyway?? the whole system is so confusing lol

This is a common point of confusion with the new FAFSA. Here's exactly what's required for 2025-2026: - Student needs FSA ID to initiate application - Student must list all contributing parents/guardians - ONLY ONE parent needs to create FSA ID and complete parent section - For married filing jointly, only one parent needs to sign and authorize IRS retrieval - Both student and contributing parent must sign If you already received SAI confirmation, your application is complete. The university rep might be using outdated information from previous FAFSA procedures. The Department of Education specifically streamlined this process to reduce barriers. I would recommend taking a screenshot of your confirmation page and the SAI notification email for your records, just in case.

I HATE the new fafsa so much!!! I spent 3 weeks trying to fix our application because of conflicting advice like this. Eventually I just gave up trying to reach anyone at FSA and paid for a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to a real person at the Federal Student Aid office. They have this video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The agent confirmed that for married parents filing jointly, only ONE parent needs to complete the parent section and authorize IRS data retrieval. The "congratulations" screen means you're done. Your daughter getting her SAI means everything is processed correctly.

Sounds like ur fine! My hubby & I had the exact same problem with our son's FAFSA. The new system is supposed to b easier but all these college fin aid officers are making it MORE confusing! Our son got his SAI and everything processed ok with just me signing. His school even disbursed his Pell Grant already so obviously the FAFSA was complete lol.

This whole FAFSA reform is a DISASTER. Different schools telling parents different things, the system crashing constantly, and nobody knows what's actually required anymore. I had to submit our FAFSA THREE TIMES because my husband's information supposedly didn't transfer correctly, even though we got the completion confirmation. And then they calculated our SAI wrong and we had to appeal. The financial aid officer at your daughter's school probably doesn't even know what's correct anymore because the Department of Education keeps changing the rules and sending contradictory guidance. Good luck getting accurate information from anyone associated with this broken system.

Just to follow up on my earlier comment - I double-checked the official Federal Student Aid guidance, and it explicitly states that for the 2025-2026 FAFSA, only one contributor (parent) needs to provide authorization for the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, even for married filing jointly. The SAI calculation is proof that your application was processed correctly. Regarding why the university representative gave incorrect information: many financial aid offices are still adapting to the FAFSA Simplification Act changes. Some advisors are working from outdated training materials or confusing the new requirements with old ones. I would gently suggest emailing the financial aid office with the official guidance from studentaid.gov to clarify.

its weird how nobody can agree on how this is supposed to work lol. my cousin did her fafsa last month and both her parents had to sign but my friends dad did it by himself and it worked fine?? maybe it depends on if ur parents are divorced or something??

My mom and I did mine last week and she was the only parent who signed it even though my parents file jointly. Got my SAI calculation literally an hour later. Your daughter's application is fine!

When my daughter applied back in January we had this exact same question. I called the Federal Student Aid info line every day for a week and couldn't get through to anyone. The wait times were ridiculous and I kept getting disconnected. I was at my wit's end until I found out about Claimyr. Got through to an FSA agent in under 30 minutes who confirmed that only one parent needs to sign for joint filers. My daughter's financial aid is all processed now without any issues.

Update: I just got off the phone with my daughter's school financial aid office (not the person from the info session). They confirmed that our FAFSA is complete and correctly submitted! The advisor I spoke with said they've been seeing confusion about this exact issue and reassured me that only one parent needs to sign for joint filers under the new simplified FAFSA. She said they're planning to correct this misinformation at future info sessions. Thank you all for your help - I feel so much better now!