Husband's FSA ID not receiving FAFSA invites from our twins - what's the fix?
We have twins starting college next Fall and I'm completely stuck with the parent portion of the FAFSA! Both of my kids sent invites for me and my husband to complete our sections. I was able to get into my FSA ID account and complete my contributor section for both twins without any issues. The problem is my husband can't see ANY invites in his FSA ID account! They simply don't show up even though both kids swear they sent invites to his email. We've checked his spam folder, had the kids resend the invites THREE times, and still nothing appears when he logs in. His FSA ID is definitely working because he can log in, but there's just no sign of any pending FAFSAs to complete. Is there some setting we're missing or do we need to create a new FSA ID for him? I'm panicking because the priority deadline for scholarships is coming up, and I don't want the twins to miss out on aid because of this technical glitch!
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Natalia Stone
I literally had the EXACT same problem with my husband's account last month! It was so frustrating. Make sure your kids added his email correctly when they sent the invitation. One thing we discovered was that my daughter had put a typo in my husband's email address on the FAFSA (added an extra letter). Also, check if your husband's FSA ID email matches the email where they sent the invitation. They have to be the same!
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Nolan Carter
•Thanks for the quick response! We triple-checked the email and it's definitely correct (I was looking over their shoulders when they sent the last invites). His FSA ID is linked to his main email account, which is the same one they're sending invites to. Still nothing showing up... it's like the invites are going into a black hole somewhere 😫
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Tasia Synder
This is a common issue with the 2025-2026 FAFSA. There are a few technical solutions you can try: 1. Have your husband clear browser cache and cookies, then try logging in again 2. Make sure the kids correctly designated him as a contributor (not just sent an email) 3. Check if his FSA ID account is fully verified (sometimes pending verification blocks invites) 4. Try having him log in through a different browser or device 5. Verify your husband's role is set as "parent" not "contributor" on the students' applications If none of these work, call Federal Student Aid directly at 1-800-433-3243. They can manually verify the invites were sent and troubleshoot.
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Nolan Carter
•We'll try all of these today! I know they set him as a parent contributor correctly, but I'm not sure if his FSA ID is fully verified - that might be the issue. Will try different browsers too. If nothing works, I guess we'll have to call FSA directly. Thanks for the detailed steps!
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Selena Bautista
have u checked if he has 2 FSA IDs somehow? my ex created 2 by accident and the invites were going to the wrong 1. also did ur kids put his SSN in correctly on the form? those have to match exactly
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Nolan Carter
•Hmm, that's interesting... I never thought about him having two accounts. I'll ask him if he might have created multiple FSA IDs. The SSNs should be correct since the kids have their dad's SSN memorized for various college paperwork, but I'll double-check that too. Thanks for the suggestion!
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Mohamed Anderson
Try this - have your husband go to the FSA ID site and select "forgot username" option. Enter his email and see how many accounts come up associated with that email. Might solve the mystery! Also, sometimes the FAFSA system is just glitchy in general when two parents are involved... classic bureaucracy 🙄
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Nolan Carter
•Great idea! We'll try the forgot username trick tonight. And yes, totally agree about the bureaucracy - this new FAFSA has been such a headache compared to what my older daughter went through three years ago. Everything seems more complicated now.
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Ellie Perry
hey we just went thru this EXACT thing!! after 3 weeks of trying everything we finally got a hold of a FSA agent who told us there was a bug in the system!! the agent had to manually link my husbands account to my daughters FAFSA. our problem was that my husband had his phone number entered with dashes in his FSA ID but my daughter had entered it without dashes on her FAFSA and the system couldnt match them up! something so stupid but it worked after they fixed it
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Nolan Carter
•Wow, that's such a tiny detail to cause such a big problem! I'll check how the phone numbers were entered. Did you just keep calling the main FSA number until you got through? It seems impossible to reach a real person there.
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Landon Morgan
After spending weeks trying to get through to Federal Student Aid about this exact issue for my stepson's FAFSA, I finally found a service called Claimyr that got me through to an agent in under 20 minutes. They basically hold your place in the phone queue and call you back when an agent picks up. Saved me hours of hold time and the agent was able to manually add me as a contributor. Check out their demo video: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ or their website claimyr.com. Not sure if there's another way around this contributor invitation bug, but talking to a real person fixed it for us.
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Selena Bautista
•does that service actually work? i tried calling FSA like 5 times last week and kept getting disconnected after 45+ mins on hold
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Nolan Carter
•Thanks for this tip! After trying all the technical solutions (cleared cache, different browsers, checking for multiple FSA IDs), we're still having the same problem. I think we'll need to talk to an actual human at FSA. I'll look into this service since I really don't have hours to spend on hold with twins' financial aid deadlines coming up!
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Teresa Boyd
One important technical detail that hasn't been mentioned yet: check if your husband properly verified his email address on his FSA ID account. Even if the account is active, sometimes the email verification gets missed and that prevents contributor invites from appearing. Also, for twins specifically, there's a known issue in the 2025-2026 FAFSA system where the second sibling's contributor invitation sometimes doesn't process correctly if sent within 24 hours of the first one. This is because the system identifies the similar parent information and flags it as a potential duplicate submission. Try having one twin withdraw their parent contributor invitation and then resend it after 48 hours. This has resolved the issue for several families with multiple students applying simultaneously.
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Nolan Carter
•That's fascinating about the twins issue! I never would have thought of that. We'll definitely check his email verification status first, then try your suggestion about having one twin withdraw and resend after waiting 48 hours. Thank you so much for this specific advice - it sounds like you really know the system well!
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Lourdes Fox
THE WHOLE FAFSA SYSTEM IS BROKEN THIS YEAR!!! Sorry for yelling but I'm so frustrated with all the problems. My daughter's application has been "processing" for 2 months, my son can't get verification completed, and now I'm hearing about this contributor invitation issue from multiple people. The Department of Education should be ashamed of themselves for rolling out such a buggy system when students' futures depend on this. Good luck getting through to anyone there - I've literally called 20+ times and given up.
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Nolan Carter
•I feel your frustration! This really shouldn't be so difficult. It's stressful enough getting twins ready for college without having to deal with technical glitches in such an important system. I hope they fix these issues soon, especially since so many schools have early priority deadlines for financial aid.
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Natalia Stone
Any update? Did you figure out which of the suggestions worked? I'm curious because my sister is having the same problem with her husband's account and twin boys too!
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Nolan Carter
•Yes! After trying everything, what finally worked was actually two things: 1) We discovered his email wasn't fully verified in his FSA ID account even though he could log in, and 2) We used that Claimyr service someone mentioned to get through to FSA, who confirmed there was a bug with multiple student invites coming close together. They manually added him as a contributor to both applications. Both twins' FAFSAs are finally complete! Tell your sister to check the email verification status first - that seems to be a common issue.
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