FAFSA contributor confusion - married filing jointly but husband is EU citizen

You're correct that for married filing jointly, only one parent needs to complete the contributor section on FAFSA. In fact, the system is designed for exactly that - one parent from a married household handles the contributor portion. Your husband should NOT complete a separate contributor section since you've already included joint tax information. The assets question is important though - you should have included ALL household assets that belong to both you and your husband, not just accounts in your name. You'll need to go back and edit your contribution to include his accounts and investments as well.

Omg i had this EXACT problem last week!!! My husband is Canadian (not EU but still foreign) and we were both trying to fill out separate sections and got SO confused. The FAFSA website is literally the worst designed thing ever 🤬

For the 2025-2026 FAFSA, when parents are married filing jointly, only one parent completes the contributor section, but that parent must report the combined assets of both parents. Your husband should not complete a separate contributor section. You need to edit your contributor information to include: 1. All bank accounts owned by either spouse 2. All investments owned by either spouse 3. All business assets owned by either spouse Regarding your husband's citizenship: As long as he has a valid SSN, his EU citizenship doesn't matter for FAFSA purposes. The important thing is that you included your joint tax information already. I recommend editing your contributor information as soon as possible to avoid delays in your daughter's SAI calculation. All parent assets must be reported regardless of whose name they're in.

the fafsa is ALWAYS confusing. but yeah only one parent does the contributor thing if ur married filing together. just make sure u include all assets for both of you when u go back and fix it. my friend's dad is from germany and they had to include his german bank accounts too but converted to dollars

I just went through this exact scenario last month. You absolutely need to go back and add ALL assets from both you and your husband to your contributor section. There's no separate section for him to complete. The most frustrating part was trying to reach someone at Federal Student Aid to confirm this. I spent THREE DAYS trying to get through their phone line before I found Claimyr (claimyr.com). They got me connected to an FSA agent in under 20 minutes who confirmed everything I'm telling you. Saved me hours of waiting and getting disconnected! Check out their demo: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ if you need to actually talk to someone at FSA to sort this out.

Umm pretty sure your husband needs to fill out his own contributor section too?? My parents both did separate ones, and one has foreign accounts. Maybe it depends on if he's a US citizen or permanent resident??

wait this is making me panick... i did the same thing and only included my assets not my husbands!!! my daughters fafsa has already been processed and she got her SAI score... are we going to get in trouble for reporting incorrectly??? should i fix it now????

I just want to share another dimension to this. My wife is from South Korea, and while we file taxes jointly, some of her foreign accounts aren't technically reportable on US taxes due to certain thresholds. HOWEVER, all assets regardless of location or tax reporting status must be included on the FAFSA. We learned this the hard way when our son's university financial aid office verified our FAFSA and requested documentation for all assets. So definitely include everything!

Thank you everyone for your help! I went back and edited my contributor section to include ALL our household assets, including my husband's EU accounts (converted to USD with today's exchange rate). The form is now reprocessing, and my daughter should get her updated SAI score within 3-5 business days according to the confirmation message. This forum saved us from what could have been a major issue later on!