FAFSA contributor issue: Husband can't sign as contributor despite joint filing - help!
I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure out this FAFSA contributor issue for my daughter who's starting college this fall. My son's FAFSA went through after some delays in previous years, but my daughter's application is stuck in limbo. Her part shows complete, my part shows complete, but one contributor (has to be my husband) is still pending. We're married and file taxes jointly. The weird thing is, my husband accepted the contributor invite and says he completed everything on his end. When he logs into his account, it shows all his ancient financial aid info from when HE was in college back in the early 2000s! There's literally no option anywhere for him to sign/confirm as our daughter's contributor. We checked the 'My Activity' section as suggested, but there's absolutely nothing there related to being a contributor for our daughter. Has anyone dealt with this? I'm worried her financial aid will be delayed and she'll miss out on grants for her freshman year. What am I missing here?
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Nina Chan
I had this exact same problem with my stepson's FAFSA last month. The issue is that the system doesn't always link the contributor status properly when someone has an old FSA ID from their own college days. Your husband needs to go to the 'Profile Information' section (not My Activity) and look for a tab called 'Contributor Status' - it's easy to miss. If that's not there, he may need to completely log out, clear browser cache, wait 24 hours, and try logging in again. The system sometimes takes time to recognize the contributor relationship.
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Douglas Foster
•Thank you for responding! We've looked everywhere and there's no 'Contributor Status' tab in his profile. I'll have him clear his cache and try again tomorrow. Do you think we should create him a brand new FSA ID instead? I'm worried that might make things worse.
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Ruby Knight
omg this happnd to us to!! my husband couldnt sign either and it was so confusing. we ended up calling the fafsa ppl but got disconncted like 5 times. finally some1 told us he needed to create a seprate FSA ID just for being a contributor which makes NO SENSE.
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Douglas Foster
•That's so frustrating! Did creating a separate FSA ID actually work though? I'm nervous about making any changes that might further complicate things. The deadline for priority aid at her college is coming up soon.
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Ruby Knight
•yea it did work but took like 3 days for the system to update after he made the new ID. so annoying!!
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Diego Castillo
I HATE THE NEW FAFSA SYSTEM!!!! Nothing but problems since they rolled out this disaster. My daughter lost her scholarship because of delays. Been helping students with FAFSA for 15 years and never seen such an incompetent rollout. The contributor system is completely broken. Half the parents I know can't figure out how to complete their part.
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Logan Stewart
•This is why I tell all the parents at my school to start the FAFSA process at least 3 months before any deadlines. The new system has so many bugs that you need to build in extra time for these problems. I'm sorry your daughter lost her scholarship - that's absolutely devastating and shouldn't happen because of technical issues.
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Mikayla Brown
Financial aid advisor here! This is a known technical issue with the new FAFSA system when contributors have old FSA IDs. Here's what your husband needs to do: 1. Log completely out of studentaid.gov 2. Clear browser cache and cookies 3. Log back in using his FSA ID 4. Go to the DASHBOARD (not My Activity) 5. Look for "To-Do List" or "Action Items" 6. If nothing appears, go to "My Documents" and check if there's a contributor agreement letter 7. If still nothing, he should click on "Apply for Aid" and see if your daughter's FAFSA appears there with a "Continue" button If none of these work, there's likely a system synchronization issue between your accounts. In that case, you'll need to contact Federal Student Aid directly to have them manually link the contributor relationship in their system.
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Douglas Foster
•Thank you so much for these detailed steps! We tried everything you suggested, but still no luck finding anything in his dashboard related to being a contributor. I guess we'll have to contact FSA directly. We've tried calling twice but couldn't get through after waiting for over an hour each time. Is there a better way to reach them?
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Sean Matthews
Have you tried using Claimyr to get through to the FSA agents? After struggling with the exact same FAFSA contributor issues for weeks, I was about to give up, but then I found this service at claimyr.com that got me connected to an actual human at the Federal Student Aid office in minutes instead of waiting on hold for hours. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ that shows how it works. The agent was able to manually fix the contributor issue on their end after verifying our information. Saved us weeks of stress!
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Douglas Foster
•I've never heard of this service, but at this point I'm willing to try anything! I'll check out that video. Did the FSA agent solve the issue right away during that call?
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Sean Matthews
•Yes! The agent saw that my husband's contributor status wasn't properly linked in their system. They fixed it while we were on the call, and within 24 hours his dashboard updated with the contributor section. The whole FAFSA was processed about a week after that.
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Ali Anderson
Sometimes the problem isnt with the FSA ID but with the contributor invitation itself. My wife and i had to delete the original invitation and send a new one with EXACTLY the same email and name that was used for his FSA ID. The system is super picky about matching those details. if even one letter is different in the email it wont connect properly.
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Douglas Foster
•That's a good point! I'll double-check the email we used for the invitation. Maybe there's a mismatch there. Do you remember how you deleted the original invitation? I don't see that option anywhere on my end.
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Ali Anderson
•You have to go to the contributor section of YOUR account (not his). There should be a list of contributors you invited and a little trash can icon or remove button next to his name. Delete it, wait a few hours (the system is slow to update), then send a fresh invitation. Make sure to use the exact email associated with his FSA ID.
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Logan Stewart
After helping dozens of families with the new FAFSA this year, I can tell you this contributor issue is extremely common. If none of the suggestions here work, you should also check if your husband verified his email and phone number in his FSA ID account. Sometimes the system won't recognize him as a valid contributor until both verification steps are complete, even if he can log in. Also, some parents have reported success by using Edge or Firefox browsers instead of Chrome, which seems to have compatibility issues with the FAFSA portal.
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Douglas Foster
•Thank you for the tip about verifying contact info! I just checked with him and while his email is verified, he never completed the phone verification step. Maybe that's the issue? We'll try that and also switch browsers. It's frustrating how many technical hoops we have to jump through just to apply for financial aid!
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Logan Stewart
•Yes, definitely complete the phone verification! I've seen several cases where that was the missing piece. And I completely agree - the new system was supposed to simplify things but has actually created more complexity. Be sure to document all your attempts to resolve this (screenshots, dates) in case you need to file an appeal for missed deadlines due to technical issues.
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Zadie Patel
when i was doing fafsa for my twins i had similar issue. turned out i was looking at the 2024-2025 fafsa but needed to be in the 2025-2026 one! make sure your in the right aid year maybe?
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Douglas Foster
•I actually double-checked that first because I made that mistake last year with my son! We're definitely in the correct aid year. But thanks for the suggestion - it's an easy thing to miss.
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Mikayla Brown
Update from my earlier comment: There's actually a recently identified bug in the system where contributor access doesn't properly connect for spouses with joint tax returns IF both parents already have FSA IDs. The Department of Education released guidance on this last week. The temporary fix is to: 1. Have your husband go to studentaid.gov/fafsa-status 2. Enter your daughter's identifiers when prompted 3. It may show a special override option for contributors with existing FSA IDs If that doesn't work, contacting FSA directly is your best option. They can manually override the contributor status on their end.
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Douglas Foster
•Thank you for this update! We'll try the status check page right away. If we still can't resolve it, I'll use that Claimyr service someone mentioned to get through to FSA directly. I'll post an update here once we get it figured out in case it helps someone else with the same issue!
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