FAFSA identity verification nightmare - daughter's application stuck for months

I feel your pain! The same thing happened with my son's application last month. What finally worked for us was contacting the financial aid office at his college directly. They have special access to the FSA system and were able to verify his identity on their end. Try reaching out to your daughter's school financial aid office - they might be able to put a note in the system or at least get you in touch with someone who can actually help.

The ID verification mess is getting ridiculous this year! I work at a college financial aid office and we're seeing TONS of these cases. A few things to try: 1. Make sure the ID you uploaded is high resolution and all four corners are visible 2. Try using a different browser (seriously, Chrome seems to work better than Firefox or Safari) 3. Check that the name on the ID EXACTLY matches what's in the FSA ID system 4. Try submitting a different form of ID if you have one (passport works better than driver's license in many cases) And most importantly - document EVERYTHING. Every call, reference number, email. If she misses priority deadlines because of FSA delays, schools can often make exceptions with proper documentation.

OMG litterally SAME SITUATION rn!!! Been waiting since December for my FSA ID to verify and missing scholarship deadlines left and right. This whole system is broken af. Like how hard is it to look at an ID and say "yep thats u" SERIOUSLY??? 🤬

After 3 weeks of battling with this same issue, I finally got through to a real person at Federal Student Aid who fixed the verification problem in literally 2 minutes. The trick was using Claimyr (claimyr.com) - it's a service that holds your place in the phone queue and calls you when an agent is about to pick up. Saved me hours of waiting on hold! There's a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ Once I got an actual person on the line, they told me the issue was that my son's address on his ID didn't match what we entered in the system. The agent overrode the verification right there on the call. Might be worth trying instead of waiting for emails that never come.

lol everyone having ID problems and meanwhile my application is APPROVED but now im stuck in SAI calculation limbo for 6 weeks. FAFSA is just broken all around this year

THE ENTIRE FAFSA SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE THROWN OUT AND REBUILT FROM SCRATCH!!!! This is my third child going to college and it gets WORSE every year. The "simplified" 2025-2026 FAFSA is a COMPLETE DISASTER. My oldest got her full Pell Grant and subsidized loans in 2019 with ONE WEEK from application to award letter. My middle child took 3 weeks in 2022. Now my youngest is approaching FOUR MONTHS and we haven't even started the actual application because of this ID verification garbage. Students are LITERALLY LOSING OPPORTUNITIES because bureaucrats can't build a functioning website in 2025!!!!

I had this exact problem back in December and found out the issue was actually with how I was uploading the ID. Here's what worked for me: 1. I used the FSA mobile app instead of the website to upload the ID (seems to process differently) 2. Made sure the image was exactly 1MB or smaller (had to resize it) 3. Used my daughter's school email address instead of her personal one Verification went through in 48 hours after weeks of failed attempts. Something about their system is very picky about the file formats and sizes. Might be worth trying!

Quick update on the ID verification situation: FSA just announced they're adding additional staff to the ID verification team due to the backlog. They're prioritizing applications that have been pending for more than 3 weeks. If you've been waiting longer than that, try calling again and specifically mention the new prioritization policy - reference FSA Bulletin 2025-04 if they give you trouble. Several of my students got through yesterday after weeks of waiting!

Sometimes its not even the verification thats the problem its that the system cant match the social security numbers with the social security administration my daughter was pending for 6 weeks and thats what they said was happening but nobody could tell us that until we finally got through to an actual person

UPDATE: We finally got through the ID verification!! Using the Claimyr service that someone suggested above, I got through to an agent in about 15 minutes instead of hours on hold. The agent said there was a mismatch between how my daughter's name appeared on her ID (with a middle initial) versus the FSA account (with full middle name). They fixed it on the spot and the verification cleared immediately. Now we're racing to complete the actual FAFSA before the priority deadline. THANK YOU everyone for your help and suggestions!

Congratulations on getting through the verification! This thread has been incredibly helpful - I've been lurking here while dealing with my own son's verification issues. Just wanted to add that after reading everyone's suggestions, I tried the mobile app approach mentioned by Matthew and it worked! Uploaded his passport through the FSA mobile app with a .edu email address and got verified in 3 days. For anyone still stuck: definitely try multiple approaches (different browsers, mobile app, different ID types) and document everything with screenshots. The system seems really finicky but persistence pays off. Good luck everyone!