How long does FAFSA reprocessing take for missing family size? Will it affect my SAI?

Yes, family size ABSOLUTELY affects your SAI calculation! It's one of the key factors, along with income and assets. The larger your family size, the more of your income is protected from the calculation since the system recognizes you need more money to support more people. You should definitely correct this ASAP. Missing family size could potentially increase your SAI by several thousand dollars depending on your situation, meaning less aid eligibility.

my brother had to reprocess last month took like 10 days for the new sai to come thru. not that bad

To give you more specific information: family size is a critical component of the FAFSA calculation, especially with the new FAFSA Simplification. It directly impacts your Student Aid Index (SAI) by adjusting the "protection allowance" - essentially how much of your family's income is shielded from consideration. For a family with $68,000 income, adding even one additional family member could potentially lower your SAI by $3,000-4,000, which could make you eligible for additional need-based aid. As for reprocessing time, the Department of Education has been experiencing significant delays this cycle, but corrections typically process within 3-7 business days right now. Your school won't finalize your package until they have the correct SAI, so it's better to fix it now than have to appeal later.

This FAFSA cycle is a DISASTER!!!! I've had to make THREE separate corrections and each one took 2+ weeks to process. Then after all that my SAI was calculated WRONG anyway and I had to file an appeal with my school. The whole system is broken and they don't care about students AT ALL.

Just a heads up, when you make the correction, take screenshots of EVERYTHING. I had a similar issue where I had to correct my parent contribution information, and somehow during reprocessing, other unrelated fields got changed too. I had to prove what I originally submitted. Also, don't just wait for the correction to process. Call your schools' financial aid offices and explain the situation. Many schools can make professional judgment adjustments even before the corrected FAFSA comes through if you explain what happened.

honestly u might wanna try calling the federal student aid people directly to see if they can help speed things up. i was stuck in verification hell for weeks and nobody would answer the phone until i found this service called claimyr.com that got me through to an actual person in like 20 min. they have a video demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ showing how it works. the fsa agent was able to push my correction through faster once i actually got to talk to someone

One other thing to consider - the impact of family size on your SAI will depend on how many people in your family are also in college. If you have siblings in college, that has an even bigger impact than just family size alone. If your family size is larger than what's currently listed (or completely missing), AND you have multiple family members in college, getting this fixed is absolutely critical for your aid package. Regarding reprocessing times, they've been improving recently. While February corrections were taking 2-3 weeks, many April corrections are processing within a week. Make the correction immediately, and if your school has a May 1 decision deadline, contact them to explain the situation.

just curious whats your sai right now? might help to know how much it could change

Quick update tip for everyone: I just talked to a financial aid advisor yesterday who mentioned that schools can actually see when you've submitted a correction and that it's pending. So even if your correction hasn't fully processed yet, many schools will hold your financial aid package rather than issue an incorrect one if you let them know you've submitted a correction. Just make sure to email/call all your schools to tell them exactly what you corrected and when you submitted it.

UPDATE: I submitted the correction yesterday afternoon and also called/emailed all my schools to let them know what happened. One financial aid office was super helpful and said they can actually adjust for the family size on their end while waiting for the official FAFSA reprocessing! They estimated my SAI would drop by about $3,800 with the correct family size. Thanks everyone for your advice - I'll post again when the official correction comes through!

Wow, this is such a helpful thread! I'm new to the FAFSA process and had no idea that family size could have such a big impact on the SAI calculation. Reading through everyone's experiences is both reassuring and terrifying at the same time - it sounds like this year's FAFSA has been a real nightmare for so many people. @Lilly Curtis - I'm so glad you caught this error and were able to get it fixed! That $3,800 potential reduction is huge. For anyone else reading this who might be in a similar situation, it really seems like the key takeaways are: 1) Don't wait to make corrections, 2) Take screenshots of everything, and 3) Contact your schools directly to explain the situation. Has anyone else found other missing information on their SAR that they didn't notice at first? I'm going to go double-check mine now to make sure everything looks right!