FAFSA parent section completed but son never got student invitation email - what's missing?

Check if u actually submitted or just saved. There's a difference! I thought I finished mine but turns out I just hit save and not the final submit button at the very end. The continue button doesn't actually submit anything. Go back in and look for a submit button on the final review page.

This happened to me too! You have to not only complete your contributor information but also go to the very last screen and hit the final SUBMIT button. Otherwise it just saves your work but doesn't actually process anything or send the student invitation. Easy mistake to make with how poorly designed the site is.

The 2025-2026 FAFSA has a specific workflow that requires full completion of the parent contributor section, then submission, before student access is granted. Here are steps to verify your status: 1. Log into studentaid.gov with YOUR account (not your son's) 2. Go to the FAFSA form section 3. Select the 2025-2026 application 4. Check if you see "Continue" or "Submitted" status 5. If it says "Continue," you need to complete the final submission process Also, verify that you entered your son's email correctly. If there was a typo, he won't receive the invitation. You can update this in the student information section.

u shud also make sure ur using the right email for him. my daughter never got her invite cuz i accidentally put her school email instead of personal gmail and she never checks that one lol

Another thing to check - make sure you completed the "agreement" checkbox and digital signature at the very end. Many parents miss this step and think they've submitted when they haven't. The system won't process anything without that final signature, even if you've filled out all the financial information. Also, be aware that there's sometimes a 24-48 hour processing delay between parent submission and when the student receives their invitation email. If you complete the submission today, have your son check tomorrow or the day after.

I had this EXACT same problem trying to reach someone at FSA when this happened to me. I kept calling that 1-800 number and could never get through. Finally I tried Claimyr (claimyr.com) and got connected to a FAFSA agent in under 10 minutes. They confirmed I hadn't actually completed the final submission step and walked me through it. Saved me so much stress! They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ

Its crazy how many of us make this exact mistake!!! I did the same thing last month and was going NUTS trying to figure out why my daughter couldn't access her part of the application. The whole design of the FAFSA site is terrible this year.

UPDATE: You were all right!! I went back in and found that I had completed all the questions but never did the final review and submission with the digital signature. Just finished that part properly and got a REAL confirmation screen this time with a submission ID number. The dashboard now shows "Submitted" instead of "In progress." My son should get his email invitation soon. Thank you all so much for your help!!

Pro tip: set a calendar reminder to check the status a week after u think you've submitted. i do this cuz the FAFSA website is so glitchy sometimes that even when u think you've done everything right, something still goes wrong lol