Paper FAFSA still not processed - son might lose Pell Grant eligibility due to late fees

Paper applications are taking FOREVER this year. My daughter mailed hers in early June and it didn't show up in the system until the second week of August - almost 10 weeks! You should probably go talk to the bursar's office directly about waiving the late fee since this is clearly beyond your control. Most schools have a process for this kind of situation.

same thing happend to me except with the online application! stuck in processing for 2 months. the whole system is a joke this year

As a financial aid counselor, I can tell you this is unfortunately common this year. Paper applications are taking 8-12 weeks to process due to the new FAFSA simplification changes. However, you have options: 1. Contact your school's financial aid office and request a "pending aid" hold on the account. Most institutions can flag accounts with pending FAFSA applications to prevent late fees. 2. Request that they apply a "FAFSA processing delay" code to your son's account. This is a specific code many schools are using this year for this exact situation. 3. Ask about their institutional emergency grant options while waiting for the Pell Grant to process. The good news is that Pell eligibility is retroactive for the full academic year, so even if it processes late, he should still receive the full amount he's eligible for. The key is preventing those late fees in the meantime.

Have you tried calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center directly? Sometimes they can locate your paper application in their system even before it shows up on studentaid.gov. I had to call them 6 times before getting through, but once I did, they were able to find my son's application and tell me exactly where it was in processing. The number is 1-800-433-3243.

Also, make sure you document EVERYTHING. Get names of everyone you talk to at the school and FAFSA, dates, times, and what they told you. My daughter almost lost her grants because the school claimed they "never received notice" that we were dealing with FAFSA delays. The only thing that saved us was I had emails proving we'd been communicating about the issue for weeks.

Sorry youre going through this! Have u checked your Student Aid Index (SAI) yet? Sometimes even when the full application isnt processed they can generate a preliminary SAI. If u can get that number from the FAFSA people, the financial aid office can sometimes use it to estimate your sons Pell Grant amount and put a temporary credit on his account until the official one comes through. Worked for my cousin last semester!

The paper FAFSA is THE WORST! Took them 11 weeks to process my daughter's last year, and we missed priority deadlines for state grants because of it. Then when it finally got processed, they had entered her SSN wrong, which caused another 3-week delay! The whole system is designed to FAIL students from families who don't have thousands sitting around to cover costs while the government gets its act together. It's CRIMINAL what they're doing to students!

One additional suggestion - if you continue having trouble reaching someone at Federal Student Aid, submit a formal case through the FSA Feedback Center (studentaid.gov/feedback-center/). This creates an official case that requires resolution and often gets faster attention than calling. Make sure to mark it as "urgent" and specifically mention that classes have started and financial penalties are being applied. This routes the case to their escalation team.

Update: I finally got through to someone at Federal Student Aid using that Claimyr service someone suggested. It actually worked! The agent found my son's paper application stuck in a verification queue even though we weren't selected for verification. They're expediting it now and said it should be processed within 5-7 business days. The financial aid office also agreed to put a hold on late fees after I showed them the case number. Thank you all for your advice - this community has been so helpful!