FAFSA signed by parent but student can't access or edit their section - help with graduation requirement
So I'm clearly doing something wrong with this FAFSA process! I completed and signed my part of the application last week, and my daughter was supposed to get an email invitation to complete her section. She finally checked her inbox yesterday and found the email, but when she clicked the login link, she couldn't edit anything on her section of the FAFSA. It just showed as "pending student signature" but with no way to actually input her information or sign it. The funny part is we're only doing this because her high school requires FAFSA completion for graduation. We're not expecting to qualify for grants with our income level, maybe just some loans which we probably won't need until her junior year. But now I'm worried I messed up something in the process and might delay her graduation! Has anyone encountered this problem? Did I need to wait for her to create her FSA ID first before starting the application? Any help would be so appreciated!
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Riya Sharma
This is a common issue! What likely happened is that you created the FAFSA in your parent FSA ID account and completed your section, but your daughter needs her own FSA ID to access and complete her portion. Here's what to do: 1. Make sure your daughter has created her own FSA ID at studentaid.gov (this is separate from yours) 2. Once she has her FSA ID, she should go directly to studentaid.gov (not through the email link) and log in with her credentials 3. She should see the "incomplete" FAFSA application waiting for her action 4. She can then complete her section and sign with her FSA ID If she's still having trouble, it might be that the email link is expired, or there's an issue with the FAFSA itself. Don't worry though, it's fixable even if you need to start over.
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Nathaniel Stewart
•Thank you so much! I think that's exactly what happened. I know I created my FSA ID, but I'm not sure if she ever created hers. We'll try having her create her own FSA ID first and then logging in directly through the main site instead of that email link. I appreciate the clear steps!
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Santiago Diaz
Yea the same thing hapned to me last year with my son. Make sure your kid creates their own FSA ID first!!! The email link doesn't work right. My son had to go to the main site after making his ID. Your school counselor should have explained this better tbh 🙄
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Nathaniel Stewart
•Seriously! The counselor just handed out a sheet saying "complete the FAFSA" with zero instructions. I'm glad it's not just me struggling with this. We'll try the FSA ID route tonight.
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Millie Long
I work in a college financial aid office, and I see this issue frequently. Your student absolutely needs their own FSA ID before they can access the FAFSA you started. The email invitation is just a notification, not an actual access point if they don't have their FSA ID set up. But here's something important to know: Even though you're not expecting to qualify for need-based aid, having a completed FAFSA on file can be useful for merit scholarships at many schools (they often require it even for non-need-based awards) and for access to federal student loans if needed later. So it's good you're completing it regardless of the high school requirement.
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Nathaniel Stewart
•That's really helpful information about the merit scholarships! I had no idea that non-need based awards might still require the FAFSA. Now I'm actually glad the school is making this a requirement. We'll definitely make sure to get it completed correctly.
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KaiEsmeralda
When my kid tried to do this we kept getting errors for TWO WEEKS trying to get into the student section! The system is such garbage. We finally got through to someone at Federal Student Aid who fixed something on their end - turns out there was a verification issue with her email that was blocking her access. Took forever to get a human on the phone though...
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Debra Bai
•Getting through to FSA can be a nightmare these days. I discovered a service called Claimyr that helped me get through to an actual agent at Federal Student Aid without the endless holding. Their site is claimyr.com and they have a video that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ It saved me hours when I was dealing with a similar FAFSA issue where my son's information wasn't being recognized properly in the system. The agent was able to fix it within minutes once we actually got through to someone.
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Gabriel Freeman
Did your son try using a different browser? Sometimes the FAFSA website acts weird on certain browsers. My daughter couldn't access her section on Chrome but it worked fine on Firefox. Also make sure popup blockers are disabled!
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Laura Lopez
•YES THIS!! the website is so buggy. i had to use microsoft edge of all things to get mine to work last month. google chrome kept freezing on the signature page.
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Nathaniel Stewart
UPDATE: We got it working! Turns out my daughter needed to create her own FSA ID first (exactly as suggested). Once she did that and logged in directly through studentaid.gov instead of the email link, she could see and edit her section of the FAFSA. Thanks everyone for your help! For anyone else reading this in the future - make sure BOTH parent and student create their own separate FSA IDs before trying to complete the FAFSA. The high school really should have made this clearer in their graduation requirements info.
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