FAFSA rejecting spouse's SSN/birthdate - how to verify info in parent profiles?

omg YES this happened to us too last week!! so frustrating. the problem was my husband had legally changed his name years ago but the SSA database still had his birth name. we had to call the FSA helpline like 5 times before someone actually figured it out. keep trying different variations of her name maybe? like maiden name or with/without middle initial?

This is a common issue with the new FAFSA system. The problem is that the Department of Education is pulling information directly from Social Security Administration records, and if there's ANY discrepancy between how your wife's name appears in SSA records versus how you're entering it, the system will reject it. Here are the most common fixes: 1. Try entering her legal name EXACTLY as it appears on her Social Security card 2. Make sure there are no spaces after names or initials 3. Try with and without her middle name/initial 4. If she has a hyphenated name, try different variations 5. Check if her birthdate might be incorrect in the SSA database If none of these work, your wife should log into her own FSA ID account and check her profile information under "Personal Information." She may need to verify her information directly with the Social Security Administration if there are discrepancies.

have u tried to just delete everything and start over?? sometimes the system just glitches like that. or maybe try a different browser. chrome works beter than safari for me

I worked through EXACLTY this problem last month! It was driving me CRAZY!!! Turns out the issue was that my husband's account had my birth date wrong by ONE DAY. He was putting in 03/12 when my birthday is actually 03/13. Check all the numbers in the birthdate too - year, day, everything. It's usually something super simple that you're overlooking. Also, make sure you're not confusing contributor 1 and contributor 2 fields - that messed us up at first.

If you keep having trouble after trying all the suggestions here, I had success using Claimyr to get through to an actual FSA agent on the phone. I was stuck in the same situation with my spouse's info being rejected, spent days trying different variations, then finally reached a live person who could see exactly what was in their system and fix it in minutes. There's a quick video demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ that shows how it works. It connected me to an agent in about 20 minutes when I had been trying for days on my own. The agent was able to see that my wife's middle name was abbreviated in their system but we were entering it in full.

Based on my experience working with families on FAFSA issues, there's another possibility to consider. The new FAFSA for 2025-2026 is extremely particular about the order of contributors. If your son initially listed you as Contributor 1 and your wife as Contributor 2, but then sent the invitation to you implying you're Contributor 1, there could be a mismatch in how the system is processing the information. Try having your son log back into the student portion and verify which parent is listed as which contributor number. Sometimes simply swapping the contributor order resolves these verification errors.

UPDATE: We figured it out! For anyone facing this issue in the future - the problem was incredibly simple but impossible to guess. My wife's middle name was entered as "Marie" on her Social Security card, but in the FSA ID system it was recorded as just "M" (initial only). Once we tried that variation, everything went through perfectly. Thank you everyone for your suggestions! Special thanks to the person who recommended checking against her SS card formatting - that's what led us to the solution.

Great job troubleshooting this! Your experience highlights exactly why the new FAFSA system can be so frustrating - these minor formatting differences that worked fine in previous years now cause major roadblocks. The fact that your wife's middle name was stored as just "M" instead of "Marie" in the FSA database is a perfect example of how picky the real-time verification has become. I'd definitely recommend that other families screenshot or write down the exact format that works once they get through, because you'll need that same formatting for renewals and any future children going through the process. Thanks for posting the solution - this will help so many other parents who run into the same issue!