FAFSA income link problem - only showing for one child, how to fix?
I'm totally confused about this FAFSA income linking issue! I have twins heading to college next fall, and I just helped them both submit their FAFSA applications. When I check their accounts, I see that only my daughter's application shows our income information successfully linked from the IRS. My son's FAFSA shows incomplete with a note about 'contributor information needed.' I thought the income linking would happen automatically for both kids since they're dependents on our taxes? Do I need to login as the parent again and somehow link our income to my son's application separately? Or does my son need to login to his account to fix this? The whole parent contributor section is confusing me!
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Nathaniel Mikhaylov
The parent needs to log in to complete this. Each student's FAFSA requires a separate parent/contributor session, even for siblings. Go to studentaid.gov, click 'Log In' and use YOUR FSA ID (not your son's). You'll see a dashboard showing applications where you're listed as a contributor. Find your son's application and complete the parent information section. The system will prompt you to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool again to link your income data to his application specifically.
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Melody Miles
•Thank you! So even though we're the same parents with the same tax info for both kids, I need to go through the whole income linking process twice? That seems so inefficient but at least I know what to do now.
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Eva St. Cyr
did u use the same email for both kids FAFSA? my sister had this problem and it was cause she used same email for both her kids by mistake
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Melody Miles
•No, they each have their own email accounts and FSA IDs. I made sure of that when we first set everything up. I just assumed as the parent I'd only need to link our income information once and it would apply to both applications.
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Kristian Bishop
I HAD THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM!! It's such a stupid system. When you login as the parent, the dashboard should show BOTH of your kids' FAFSAs waiting for you to complete the parent section. You have to do the income linking SEPARATELY for each kid even though it's THE SAME INFORMATION. They don't tell you this anywhere!!! I wasted weeks thinking my son's application was complete only to find out the parent section was still missing. His college financial aid was delayed by almost a month because of this!
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Melody Miles
•Oh no, that's exactly what I'm worried about! I need to fix this ASAP then. Did you have any issues with the income linking the second time around? I'm worried it might get flagged as suspicious if I do it twice.
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Kristian Bishop
•Nope, system let me do it again no problem. Just annoying to repeat everything. Just make sure you complete it soon - colleges have priority deadlines for aid!
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Kaitlyn Otto
This is a common confusion point with the 2024-2025 FAFSA. Here's what's happening: When multiple dependents apply for federal student aid, each student's FAFSA requires separate income verification from contributors (parents). This is actually by design - it ensures each student's application is individually processed and prevents linking errors. Follow these steps: 1. Log in with YOUR parent FSA ID at studentaid.gov 2. Go to the FAFSA form section 3. You should see a list of FAFSAs where you're listed as a contributor 4. Select your son's application 5. Complete the contributor section including the IRS Data Retrieval Tool The good news is your information is stored, so it should be faster the second time through. Just verify all information transfers correctly.
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Axel Far
•This happened to me too! But even after I linked both kids' FAFSAs to my income, only one got their SAI calculation right away. The other one was stuck "processing" for like 3 weeks. Is that normal???
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Kaitlyn Otto
•Processing times can vary significantly, even between siblings. If it's been more than 3-4 weeks, I'd recommend calling Federal Student Aid directly to check on the status. Sometimes there are verification flags on one application but not the other.
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Jasmine Hernandez
When I had this issue last month, I spent HOURS trying to get through to someone at Federal Student Aid. I finally used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get past the phone wait - they have this service that holds your place in line and calls you when an agent is available. Saved me literally hours of waiting. Their video demo shows how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The agent explained that each student needs their own income verification through the parent portal, even for siblings in the same household. It's a security measure to ensure each student's application is processed correctly. Once I did the second income link, my son's SAI score was calculated within 48 hours.
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Melody Miles
•Thank you for sharing this! If I run into any issues with the linking process, I'll definitely check out that service. The FSA phone lines are always jammed whenever I've tried calling.
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Luis Johnson
Wait I'm confused, I thought the new FAFSA was supposed to let you "share" your info with multiple students? Thats what our college advisor told us last fall...
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Kaitlyn Otto
•The confusion is understandable. While the FAFSA Simplification Act did streamline many aspects of the application, parents still need to authorize their information for each student individually. What your advisor might have been referring to is that once you complete one child's FAFSA, the system saves some of your information making subsequent applications faster. But you still need to go through the process for each child and explicitly authorize the income linking for each student's application.
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Melody Miles
Update: I logged in as parent and found my son's application on my dashboard! It was showing as "Contributor Information Needed" just like you all said. I went through the income linking process again and it worked perfectly. Both kids now show completed applications with "Processing" status. Thanks for all your help everyone!
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Kristian Bishop
•Great!! Now keep an eye on both apps to make sure they both complete processing. The new system is taking anywhere from 2-14 days to generate the SAI in my experience.
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Yuki Tanaka
Glad you got it sorted out! Just a heads up - make sure to check both applications periodically over the next few weeks. Sometimes one twin's application will process smoothly while the other gets flagged for verification or has some random glitch. I've seen parents think they're all set only to discover weeks later that one kid's FAFSA got stuck somewhere in the system. Also, once both are fully processed, double-check that the SAI calculations look reasonable for both - they should be identical since it's the same family financial info. If there's a big discrepancy, that's usually a sign something went wrong with the data transfer.
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