FAFSA says 'In Review' but I never signed as contributor - will it bounce back?

This happened to me too! The FAFSA's new system is completely different from previous years. My son submitted without me signing as a contributor and it sat in 'In Review' for about 9 days before getting kicked back. You'll eventually get an email notification when it's rejected, and then you can log in with your FSA ID to complete your contributor section. Don't start a new application - that will just confuse the system more.

omg the new fafsa is so bad!!! it let me submit without my mom's info too and we had to wait almost 3 weeks before it came back as incomplete. now we're scrambling to get everything done before my school's deadline

You should call the Federal Student Aid Information Center right away to get this fixed! Their number is 1-800-433-3243, but fair warning - I spent 4 hours on hold last week trying to resolve a similar issue and eventually gave up. The new system has been causing all kinds of problems with contributor signatures. Some schools are aware of these issues and are being flexible with deadlines, so you might want to contact your daughter's financial aid office too.

Financial aid advisor here. This is unfortunately a common issue with the new FAFSA. The system will eventually flag the application as incomplete and return it for the contributor's signature, but the timing is unpredictable (ranging from 5 days to 3+ weeks). Here's what you should do: 1. Don't create a new application - that will just create more problems 2. Contact your daughter's school's financial aid office and explain the situation 3. Many schools are aware of these issues and have internal processes to accommodate FAFSA delays 4. Prepare your financial documents (2023 tax returns, W-2 forms, etc.) so you're ready when the application comes back 5. If you're concerned about meeting the priority deadline, some schools will accept a College Board CSS Profile as a temporary substitute while FAFSA issues are resolved

Ya'll know that the FAFSA 2 years ago was so much better right?? My nephew had this EXACT same problem and we found out FSA has a special dept just for the new FAFSA issues that can manually fix contributor problems. Wish I could remember what it was called...

I've been dealing with this exact situation with my son's FAFSA. Called FSA three times and got different answers each time about how long the review would take. The first agent said 3-5 business days, the second said 2-3 weeks, and the third said "it varies" 🙄 What finally worked was contacting my son's school financial aid office. They have a special internal form they submitted to flag his application, and it got rejected and returned to us within 48 hours after that. Definitely reach out to your daughter's school ASAP!

the same thing happened with my FAFSA three weeks ago!!! it finally got rejected yesterday and now i have to wait for my dad to put in his information. so annoying that they didnt make the system catch this error BEFORE submission

UPDATE: I called my daughter's school this morning and they were super helpful! They said they're seeing this issue with about 30% of applications and have a process to flag it with the Department of Education. They also assured me they won't penalize students for FAFSA processing delays as long as the initial submission was before their priority deadline. Such a relief! For anyone having the same problem, definitely call your school's financial aid office first.