FAFSA confusion - completed my portion but husband's invite shows no forms & no financial info requested?

the new FAFSA is supposed to pull ur tax info automatically from the IRS. did u give permission for that? if u did then thats why it didnt ask for financial stuff. for ur husband, maybe try having ur son log in and resend the invite? sometimes the links expire

The 2025-2026 FAFSA uses direct data transfer from the IRS, so if you consented to that, it's normal that you weren't asked to manually enter financial information. That's actually a good sign! For your husband's issue, there are two possibilities: 1) Your son might have only added you as a contributor, not your husband 2) Your husband might need to create his own studentaid.gov account first before accessing the invite Have your son log in and check the contributor section to verify both parents are listed. Also, make sure your husband has his own FSA ID set up before clicking the invite link.

omg the exact same thing happened with my daughter's application!! I completed my section but my wife couldn't access anything. Turns out for some reason the system only required ONE parent to complete the contributor section. Check your son's dashboard - does it show the application as 100% ready to submit? If so, then apparently they don't need both parents anymore with the new system.

There's a lot of confusion with the new FAFSA system. Here's what's happening: 1. Financial info: Yes, the Direct Data Exchange with the IRS means you no longer manually enter financial info if you consented to the data transfer. This is working correctly. 2. Husband's access: The new FAFSA often only requires information from one parent in a two-parent household, especially if you file taxes jointly. The system determines which parent needs to complete forms based on the student's answers about household composition. If your son's application shows ready to submit after you completed your portion, then everything is working as intended - your husband likely doesn't need to complete anything.

I've been helping families with the new FAFSA and this is a common issue. The system now determines which parent(s) need to contribute based on the student's answers. If you file jointly, often only one parent needs to complete the contributor section. However, if you're still concerned, I'd recommend trying to contact Federal Student Aid directly to confirm everything is correct. Unfortunately, their phone lines are incredibly backed up right now with all the FAFSA changes. I recently discovered a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helps you get through to an actual FSA agent without the hours-long wait. They have a video demo showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ Might be worth checking out if you want absolute confirmation that your application is correct before submission.

UGH the new FAFSA is such a NIGHTMARE!! I had similar issues with my twins' applications. The system is COMPLETELY different from previous years and the instructions are terrible. I spent HOURS trying to figure out why my husband couldn't access the forms. Turns out the new system only needed me to complete it since I was listed as the "contributing parent" even though we're married and file jointly. Makes NO SENSE but that's government efficiency for you! 🙄

Did your son's SAI score show up right away after submission? My daughter submitted hers two weeks ago and we're still waiting to see her score...

Just to add some clarity about what's happening with the parent contribution situation: The 2025-2026 FAFSA uses the new Student Aid Index (SAI) instead of the old Expected Family Contribution (EFC). With this change, they've simplified the parent contribution process. If you're married and file taxes jointly, the system only needs one parent to complete the contributor section since they can access all the necessary financial data through that parent's consent for IRS data transfer. This is actually working as designed, even though it's confusing if you're used to the old system where both parents needed to provide information separately. So if your application shows complete after just your contribution, you're good to go!

Update: We submitted the FAFSA last night! My son's dashboard showed 100% complete even with just my contribution (we file jointly). Thank you everyone for your help and explaining how the new system works. Such a relief to have this done before his priority deadline. Now we just have to wait for his SAI score to appear.