FAFSA rejects student ITIN when entering SSN - system error or user mistake?

Are you entering the SSN with or without dashes? The FAFSA system is really picky about formatting. Try entering it as nine consecutive digits with no spaces or dashes. Also, make sure you're not accidentally hitting any extra keys while typing. Sometimes a space at the beginning or end can trigger that error.

same thing happened with my son's application last week!! so frustrating. have you checked if the website is in maintenance mode? sometimes they do updates and weird stuff happens

This is a known issue with the new FAFSA system. There are a few potential solutions: 1. Try using a different browser - Chrome and Firefox tend to work better than Safari or Edge with the FAFSA portal 2. Clear your browser cache and cookies completely 3. Make sure you selected the correct option for citizenship status - this can affect how the system validates the SSN 4. If you're using a VPN, try disabling it as some security features can interfere with validation 5. Check if your daughter's name exactly matches what's on her Social Security card - even a missing middle initial can cause validation issues If none of these work, you'll need to contact Federal Student Aid directly at 1-800-433-3243. The hold times are ridiculous though.

Spent 3.5 hours on hold with FSA yesterday for a similar issue. The FAFSA system is GARBAGE this year. They updated everything and now nothing works right. When I finally got through, the agent told me there's a bug in the system where it sometimes confuses ITIN and SSN fields. COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS that we have to deal with this for something so important!!

I had this exact problem and found a workaround! Log out completely, then clear your browser cache. When you log back in, go to the "Start Over" option and begin the application again (your saved info should still be there). For some reason, when I did this, the system accepted the SSN on the second try. Something about the session variables gets messed up if you've been working on the application too long.

I tried calling the FAFSA number like 20 times for a different issue and kept getting disconnected. Finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to a real person at FSA. They have this system that holds your place in line and calls you back when an agent is available. Saved me hours of waiting on hold. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ

did u check if she has a freeze on her credit report? my nephew couldnt get verified bc he had a credit freeze and didnt know it

UPDATE: Success! I tried the suggestion to clear my cache, log out, and start over. When I got back to the ITIN/SSN field, I entered the number without any dashes and it worked! Thanks everyone for your help. For anyone else having this issue, seems like it's a combination of browser cache issues and formatting preferences in the FAFSA system.

Glad you got it sorted out! This is such a common issue this year. For future reference, I've found that using incognito/private browsing mode also helps avoid these cache-related problems with the FAFSA system. The new portal seems to have a lot of session management bugs that cause validation errors. Definitely save your progress frequently as you work through the rest of the application - I've heard horror stories about people losing hours of work due to system timeouts.

I'm so glad I found this thread! I'm dealing with the exact same issue right now with my son's FAFSA application. We've been stuck on this SSN validation error for two days and I was starting to panic about missing deadlines. Going to try the cache clearing and start over method right now. It's honestly ridiculous that such a critical system has these kinds of bugs - how many students are getting delayed or giving up because of technical issues like this? Really appreciate everyone sharing their solutions and workarounds here!

I just went through this exact same nightmare last month! The SSN validation issue seems to be affecting a lot of people. One thing that worked for me that I haven't seen mentioned yet - make sure you're not using autofill or password managers when entering the SSN. The FAFSA system seems to have issues with auto-populated fields. I had to manually type each digit, wait a second between each one, and then it finally accepted it. Also, if you have multiple tabs open with FAFSA, close all of them except one - the system gets confused with multiple sessions. The whole thing is so poorly designed it's embarrassing for something this important to students' futures.