IRS data retrieval for FAFSA works but still getting 'incomplete form' texts/emails - what's wrong?

This is actually pretty common with the new FAFSA system. The IRS data transfer works correctly, but there's a delay between when the data populates and when the system acknowledges it as "complete." One thing to check - did you complete ALL contributor sections? Even if your family only has one contributor (you), you still need to formally mark other potential contributors as "not contributing" or the system thinks you're missing information.

omg im gettin those 2!! like 5 texts a day saying incomplete but when i log in its all green checkmarks. so annoying

This happened to me too. The issue was that even though the IRS Data Retrieval showed success, you need to actually click through every single section again until you reach the final submission page and hit submit one more time. The system doesn't recognize the tax data as fully integrated until you complete this final step, despite showing green checkmarks on all sections. Go back to the application, click through each section (don't need to change anything), and when you get to the end, there should be a final submit button. If you don't see that, then there is still something incomplete the system is detecting.

Those fafsa notifications are THE WORST. i got them for weeks even after submitting everything. turned out there was nothing wrong with my application, the system just keeps sending them until your SAI is processed. dont trust the notificationst trust what you see when you actually log in

Have you checked if the student portion is complete as well? A lot of parents don't realize that both the parent AND student sections need to be 100% complete. Your daughter needs to log in with HER account (not yours) and make sure she's completed all her sections. Even if you think you did everything from your end, the student has separate requirements that might be triggering those notifications.

I had this EXACT problem and wasted TWO WEEKS trying to figure it out! I called FSA multiple times but couldn't get through - just kept getting disconnected after waiting for hours. Finally I used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get connected to an actual FAFSA agent without the wait. They explained that there's a glitch in the system where the notifications don't stop even when your application is actually complete! The agent verified everything was fine with our application and marked it in their system to stop sending alerts. Check out their video on how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ

OMG the same thing happened with my son's FAFSA!!!! Been getting those stupid texts for WEEKS and thought I was going crazy. I literally went back and checked every single answer three times. FAFSA is such a disaster this year 🤬

UPDATE FOR EVERYONE: The Department of Education just announced yesterday that they're aware of this notification glitch and are working on a fix. According to their statement, applications that appear complete when you log in ARE actually complete in their system, and the notifications can be ignored. They expect to resolve the issue within 2 weeks. In the meantime, they recommend checking your actual application status by logging in rather than relying on the automated notifications.

UPDATE: Problem solved! After manually going through every section again and hitting the final submit button (which I had missed before), the system finally acknowledged everything as complete. The notifications stopped after about 24 hours, and we received our SAI calculation this morning. For anyone else experiencing this - make sure you hit that final submit button after the IRS data retrieval, even if all sections show complete with green checkmarks!