FAFSA contributor invitation email not received for one daughter but worked for the other

This happened to me with my twins! For one kid the email came through instantly, for the other it never showed up. What worked for us was having my second child log back into studentaid.gov and cancel the original invitation, then send a new one but with a slightly different email address for me (I added a period in my gmail address, which Gmail treats as the same account but FAFSA sees as different). The invitation came through right away after that.

did u check if ur daughters using exact same email for u? my son misspelled my email and i never got anything lol. also make sure shes actually completing the invitation step fully sometimes they think they sent it but didnt finish the process

This is actually a known issue with the FAFSA contributor system that's been happening since the new form launched. There are a couple of technical solutions you can try: 1. Have your daughter log in and actually REMOVE you as a contributor first, then add you again with a fresh invitation 2. Try using a completely different email address if you have one available 3. If neither works, your daughter can call FSA directly at 1-800-433-3243 and request they manually reset the contributor invitation system for her application The system sometimes has trouble when the same parent email is used across multiple applications in a short timeframe. The FSA team can fix it on their end.

I've had nothing but problems with this new FAFSA system. They completely botched the rollout and now families are paying the price. My son's SAI calculation was delayed by 6 weeks because of similar technical glitches. The contributor system is especially buggy - sometimes emails never arrive, other times they arrive but the link doesn't work, and sometimes you complete everything correctly but the student's application doesn't update to show your information. The worst part is trying to get actual help from a human being at FSA. I spent FOUR HOURS on hold last week only to be disconnected!!! This is people's college funding on the line and they can't even staff a proper support system.

If you need to reach an actual person at Federal Student Aid without spending hours on hold, check out Claimyr.com - they can get you connected to an FSA agent in usually under 30 minutes. I was dealing with a similar contributor invitation issue and was about to lose my mind after being disconnected twice. Used their service and finally got through to someone who could help reset the system on their end. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ

Just to be clear on the contributor process - your daughter needs to complete these exact steps in order: 1. Log into her studentaid.gov account 2. Go to the FAFSA form and navigate to the Parent/Contributor section 3. Enter your email address 4. Confirm the invitation on the next screen 5. Click the final "Send Invitation" button (many students miss this step) If she's completed all these steps and you still don't receive anything, there's one more trick: have her log back in and check if the system shows your email as "Invitation Pending" or "Invitation Sent" - if it shows "Pending" there was an error in the sending process. Also, for contributor emails, they sometimes arrive with a sender name of "Federal Student Aid" rather than FAFSA specifically, so check for that in your email search.

my niece had this happen and turned out her dad's email had some security thing blocking gov emails. check your email settings maybe?

Update from the original email trick suggestion - just wanted to add that sometimes the invitation emails can take up to 48 hours to arrive, despite the system saying they should come through immediately. The FAFSA system is still experiencing delays this year. If modifying your email address doesn't work, you might try waiting another day before calling FSA directly.

One more technical solution to try: have your daughter access her FAFSA from a completely different device and browser. There have been reports that some browser caching issues can prevent the invitation emails from properly sending, even though the system shows they were sent. Try having her log in from a different computer or phone using a different browser than she normally uses, and send the invitation fresh from there.

UPDATE: We finally got it working! What ended up working was a combination of suggestions from this thread. We: 1) had my daughter remove me completely as a contributor, 2) cleared her browser cache and cookies, 3) used her phone instead of laptop, 4) added a different email address for me. The invitation came through within minutes! Thanks everyone for your help - this was driving us crazy for days!

So glad you were able to get this resolved! I'm dealing with a similar issue right now with my son's FAFSA - the contributor invitation system has been such a headache this year. It's really helpful that you shared the step-by-step solution that worked for you. I'm going to try the browser clearing and different device approach first since that seems like it might be the key. It's frustrating that we have to become tech troubleshooters just to complete financial aid forms, but at least there are workarounds. Thanks for taking the time to update with your solution!