FAFSA held up for 3 weeks due to SSA name verification after marriage - help?

same thing happened to me, but mine was bc i got legally adopted at 19 & had my last name changed. ssa verification took almost a month!! nobody ever told me why. sorry i dont have advice but ur not alone

This is a known issue with the new FAFSA system. The verification process between FSA and SSA is taking much longer than normal this year, especially with name changes. You have three options: 1. Wait it out (not ideal with your deadline) 2. Contact your school's financial aid office and explain the situation - many are making accommodations for FAFSA delays 3. Request a special circumstance extension directly with your school's financial aid office The important thing is to document everything. Print screenshots of your pending status and save all correspondence. These will be helpful if you need to prove you submitted on time.

omg the FAFSA system is so frustrating this year!! I had the same issue but with my birthday being wrong somehow?? took forever to fix and nobody could explain why. have you tried submitting a correction to your FAFSA? sometimes that can kick it into gear

Financial aid administrator here. This is unfortunately common this year. The SSA data match has been problematic in the new system, especially with recent name changes. Here's what I recommend: 1. Contact your school's financial aid office IMMEDIATELY. Request a priority deadline extension due to the SSA verification delay. 2. Provide them with a screenshot of your FAFSA showing the pending verification status. 3. Submit a copy of your new social security card and marriage certificate to the financial aid office. 4. Ask if they can use these documents to manually verify your information while waiting for the electronic verification. Many schools have processes to accommodate these delays. Don't panic about missing aid opportunities - just be proactive about communicating with your aid office.

THE ENTIRE SYSTEM IS BROKEN!!! I've had nothing but problems with this year's FAFSA. My daughter's application has been stuck in "processing" for OVER A MONTH with no updates. We've called dozens of times and either can't get through or get transferred around until someone hangs up on us. Meanwhile deadlines are passing and financial packages are being sent out to other students. They completely revamped the system and clearly DIDN'T TEST IT properly. It's affecting REAL PEOPLE'S FUTURES!!!

Have you tried visiting your local Social Security office in person? My niece had a similar issue and found out there was a discrepancy between how her name appeared in the SSA system versus what she entered on FAFSA. Tiny difference (middle initial with period vs without) but it caused weeks of delay. The SSA office helped clear it up.

is anyone else annoyed that they completely changed the fafsa system the same year as the election?? feels like nobody in government is paying attention to fixing these issues bc theyre all busy campaigning lol

UPDATE: I wanted to thank everyone for their advice! I followed several suggestions: 1. Contacted my school's financial aid office - they gave me a 3-week extension on the priority deadline! 2. Used Claimyr to actually reach someone at FSA after 9 previous failed attempts - they submitted an expedited review 3. Visited my local SSA office (had to wait 2 hours) and discovered there WAS a discrepancy in how my married name was formatted Good news - my verification finally went through this morning! The SSA office fix plus the expedited review from FSA seems to have worked. For anyone else dealing with this, definitely be persistent and try multiple approaches at once. Thanks again for all your help!