FAFSA missing parent signature - locked out of adding it now? Help!

Ugh I had this EXACT problem with my son's application back in December! Super frustrating. You need to log into YOUR FSA ID (not your daughter's) and there should be a notification in your dashboard about a pending signature request. If you don't see that, then you might need to have your daughter log in and use the 'Request Parent Signature' option which should be somewhere in her incomplete application. Hope that helps!

This is a common issue with the new FAFSA system. Here's what you need to do: 1. Wait 3-5 business days for the initial processing to complete 2. Both you and your daughter should receive an email notification when the system detects the missing signature 3. At that point, you'll be able to log in with your FSA ID and complete the signature If you don't receive an email within 5 business days, you'll need to contact Federal Student Aid directly. The system won't allow immediate corrections while in the initial processing stage. Don't worry about the deadline - schools understand these technical issues are happening frequently and many have adjusted their internal processes accordingly.

my kid had this problem too!! the whole system is messed up this year. we ended up having to start over completely after waiting for 2 weeks with no email. such a waste of time.

I work in a college financial aid office, and we're seeing this issue frequently this year. A few important points: 1. The "processing" status with the missing signature warning is normal - the system is still registering your application. 2. You should receive an email within 3-7 days prompting the missing signature. 3. If you're approaching your school's priority deadline, CONTACT THE SCHOOL directly. Most institutions have internal processes to handle these FAFSA system delays. 4. Document everything - take screenshots of the error messages and processing screens. 5. When you do get the signature email, you'll just need to add the signature, not redo the entire application. The most important thing is communication with the schools your daughter is applying to about this technical issue.

if u need to get through to someone at federal student aid, try using Claimyr. my sister told me about it last month when i had issues with my sons SAI calculation. it got me through to a real person in like 10 minutes instead of waiting forever. their website is claimyr.com and they have a video showing how it works https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ made dealing with fafsa so much less stressful

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet - have you tried the "Correction" option? My daughter had a similar issue and we were able to fix it by having her log in, select the option to make a correction to the existing FAFSA, then navigating to the signature page. This only worked after about 24 hours though, when the status changed from "Processing" to "Action Required" or something similar. The new FAFSA system is soooo much more confusing than the old one!

One additional tip - if your daughter's school uses the CSS Profile in addition to the FAFSA, make sure that's completed correctly while you're waiting for the FAFSA signature issue to resolve. Some schools will use the CSS Profile to make preliminary aid offers if there are FAFSA delays.

UPDATE: My daughter got her financial aid package even though we had the signature issue! The school used her SAI from the "in process" FAFSA and just made us promise to fix the signature as soon as we got the email. So don't panic too much - definitely call the schools!

Just wanted to add my experience as another data point - we had the exact same issue two weeks ago! The missing parent signature thing is happening to SO many families this year. We waited about 4 days and then got the email to complete the signature. The whole process took maybe 5 minutes once we could access it again. One thing that helped us was setting up email notifications in both our FSA ID accounts so we'd get alerts immediately. Also, I'd recommend taking screenshots of everything like Isabella mentioned - we documented the whole timeline just in case the school needed proof of when we submitted vs when we could actually complete it. The good news is that most schools are being really flexible about this since it's such a widespread technical issue. Don't stress too much - it sounds like you're on top of it and doing all the right things!

I'm dealing with this exact same situation right now! My son submitted his FAFSA last week and we completely forgot about my parent signature. I've been refreshing his dashboard constantly hoping something would change, but it's still stuck on "Processing" with that yellow warning. Reading through everyone's responses here is giving me so much hope though! I had no idea this was such a widespread issue with the new FAFSA system. I was beating myself up thinking we were the only ones who made this mistake. It's really comforting to know that schools are being understanding about it and that the wait time seems to be pretty consistent at 3-5 days. I'm definitely going to call his top choice school tomorrow to give them a heads up, and I'll make sure to document everything with screenshots like you all suggested. Thanks for creating this thread - it's been incredibly helpful for a stressed out parent! 🙏