FAFSA rejected my APO military address - had to use relatives' address instead

This is unfortunately a common issue with military families and FAFSA. The system isn't properly designed to handle APO/FPO addresses despite many military dependents needing financial aid. The official guidance is to use your state of legal residence (where you pay taxes, vote, etc.) rather than your physical overseas location. Your decision to use your sister's address might cause issues if that's not your legal state of residence for tax purposes.

as a military brat whos now in college, we had THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM!!! my dad is stationed in germany and none of our verification docs matched the address my mom put on fafsa bc of this stupid issue. ended up having to submit extra paperwork proving my dads military status and explaining the address situation. super annoying but we got it resolved eventually.

You need to call Federal Student Aid directly and explain the situation. They can make manual adjustments to your application and note your account about the APO address situation. I work with military families on education benefits and this comes up constantly. Save yourself the headache of verification issues down the road.

When I had a similar issue reaching FSA about my son's application (not APO related, but verification problems), I used this service called Claimyr that got me through to an agent in about 10 minutes instead of waiting on hold for hours. You might want to check out their website claimyr.com or see their demo video at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ - it saved me so much frustration with the callback system. The agent I spoke with was able to document the special circumstances in our case.

The "correct" solution here is to use your home of record address (the state you claim for tax purposes), NOT your current physical location. Since you mentioned Texas is your tax residence, you should be using an address there, but ideally your own property or official residence, not your sister's. If you own property in Texas, use that address. If not, you might need to establish a proper Texas mailing address through a mail forwarding service that specializes in military families. And just an FYI for future reference, on the FAFSA there's actually a question that asks if you or your spouse is on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces. Making sure that's marked correctly can help prevent verification issues.

I went through this with my FAFSA application last year - I'm active duty too! The key is the STATE of legal residence, not your actual street address. I used my parents' address in my home state (where I'm still legally a resident for tax purposes) and when verification came up, I submitted a copy of my military ID and orders along with a statement explaining the address situation. Took about 3 extra weeks to process but it worked out fine.

THE WHOLE FAFSA SYSTEM IS RIGGED AGAINST MILITARY FAMILIES!!! I've been fighting this battle for years with my kids. They don't understand APO addresses, they don't understand how BAH and other allowances work, and half the customer service people have no idea how to handle military situations. And with the new FAFSA simplified formula this year, it's even worse because they're looking at different income factors that can really hurt military families with housing allowances. They SAY they support the troops but the system says otherwise!!!!

For a more permanent solution: The Federal Student Aid Ombudsman Group is specifically designed to help resolve issues like this that fall through the cracks of the regular system. You can reach them at studentaid.gov/feedback-ombudsman/disputes/prepare. They have experience with military-specific situations and can document your case properly so it doesn't cause recurring problems each year you need to reapply. Much better than temporary workarounds.

As someone who's been through this exact situation, I completely understand your frustration! I'm a Navy spouse and we faced the same APO rejection issue when filling out my son's FAFSA last year. What ended up working for us was establishing a "virtual mailbox" service in our state of legal residence (Florida for us). These services provide you with a real street address that can receive and forward your mail, and they're specifically designed for military families who don't have a permanent physical address in their home state. The virtual mailbox address satisfied FAFSA's verification requirements because it's a legitimate street address in our tax state, and we were able to provide documentation from the service showing it's our official mailing address. Cost us about $15/month but saved so much headache during verification. Companies like PostScan Mail and US Global Mail specialize in this for military families. Just make sure whatever service you choose can provide official documentation that you can submit during verification if needed.