FAFSA system glitch showing my dependent student as independent - tried everything!

omg same thing happened to my brother last week!! the system is so broken rn. he kept getting marked as independent even tho he's 18 and we support him completely. no idea what's going on

Did you figure out a solution? I'm getting desperate here. The first school deadline is in 3 weeks!

This is probably because of the FAFSA Simplification Act changes. The dependency questions got reworked for the 2025-2026 form and there are TONS of glitches. My sister works in a financial aid office and says they're getting flooded with these exact problems.

That makes sense, but I still need to fix it somehow. Did your sister mention any workarounds they're recommending to students?

She said most students are having to call FSA directly and have them manually override the system. The hold times are insane though - like 2-3 hours minimum. Some people are just submitting as independent and then getting the schools to make corrections after the fact, but that's risky.

Financial aid advisor here - this is a known issue with the dependency determination logic in the new FAFSA system. Here's what you should do:\n\n1. Take screenshots of the dependency questions showing all \

Thank you SO much for these specific steps! This is exactly what I needed. I've been trying that number for two days but can't get through - just endless hold times and then disconnections. Is there a better time of day to call?

Early morning (right when they open at 8am Eastern) or late evening (after 7pm) tend to have shorter wait times. But honestly, wait times are brutal right now regardless of when you call - the shortest I've heard recently is still over an hour.

I had the exact same problem last month and could NOT get through on that number no matter what time I called. I finally used this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) 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

DONT DO THE PAPER FORM!!!!! We did that last year when the website kept crashing and it took THIRTEEN WEEKS to process!!! By then my son missed priority deadlines at 2 schools and lost out on thousands in institutional grants. Calling is your best bet even though it's a nightmare.

That's exactly what I was afraid of! There's no way we can wait that long. I'm definitely going to keep trying to call.

Try this: log out completely, clear browser cache, use a different browser (Firefox worked for me when Chrome didn't), and try again from scratch. Sometimes the system caches previous answers even when you think you're starting over. My daughter had the exact same issue and this fixed it.

We actually tried that already - used three different browsers, cleared all cookies and cache, even tried from a completely different computer. Same result every time. It's definitely something wrong in their system.

Ugh, sorry to hear that didn't work. One other thing - check if any of the dependency questions could have been misinterpreted. The one about \

the whole fafsa system is GARBAGE this year!!! been dealing with this nightmare since october. they know its broken but dont care. my daughters SAI score was completely wrong because of some stupid glitch. spent 6 weeks trying to fix it and missed her early decision deadline. filed a complaint with dept of education and my congressmans office. NOTHING HELPS!!!

The system is definitely a mess, but filing complaints actually does help in the big picture. The more documentation they have of these problems, the more likely they are to extend deadlines and make accommodations. Several schools have already pushed back their priority deadlines because of all the FAFSA problems.

have u tried using the FAFSA app instead of the website? worked for my cousin when the site was acting weird

I didn't even know there was an app! We'll definitely try that tonight, thanks for the suggestion!

np! hope it works for u!

Just went through this last week! After trying everything, I finally got through to someone at FSA who told me it was because on one screen my daughter answered that she

That's interesting - we double checked that one specifically and made sure to mark \

Update: FSA just released guidance for schools about this exact issue yesterday. It's a confirmed system bug affecting some applications. They're implementing a fix this weekend (supposedly), but in the meantime, they're telling schools to use professional judgment to correct dependency status when there's clear documentation that the student should be dependent. \n\nMake sure to contact each school's financial aid office directly once you've submitted - they may be able to make the correction on their end now without requiring you to get through to FSA first.

Thank you for this update! That gives me some hope. I'm going to try the app tonight as someone suggested, and if that doesn't work, I'll submit anyway and then immediately contact her schools. Thank you all for the help!

I'm dealing with this exact same issue right now! My son is 18, lives at home, and we claim him as a dependent on our taxes, but the FAFSA keeps flagging him as independent no matter what we do. It's so frustrating because this glitch could cost us thousands in aid eligibility. I tried calling the FSA number multiple times but gave up after being on hold for over 2 hours each time. Really hoping that system fix they mentioned actually works this weekend - we can't afford to wait much longer with all these deadlines approaching!

This dependency status glitch is absolutely maddening! I'm a college sophomore and my younger sister is going through this exact same nightmare right now. She's 17, still in high school, lives at home, and has never worked - literally the textbook definition of a dependent student. But somehow the FAFSA system decided she should file as independent?? Makes zero sense. We've been trying to fix this for weeks and it's causing so much stress for my whole family. The worst part is that if she gets classified as independent, she won't qualify for nearly as much aid since the system won't consider our parents' income. It's like the system is punishing students for a glitch THEY created. Really hoping that weekend fix actually works because at this point I'm starting to think the whole FAFSA redesign was a huge mistake. Thanks for posting about this - at least now I know we're not going crazy and it really IS a widespread system problem!