Why won't FAFSA let me access my second child's application after receiving email invite?

omg same thing happened to me last month! the system is so glitchy this year. you need to go to the "My Documents" section, not the dashboard. the invites show up there instead. took me like 3 days to figure it out lol

This is a common issue with the 2025-2026 FAFSA. The problem lies in how the new system handles multiple student profiles under a single contributor account. Here's what you need to do: 1. Log out completely from studentaid.gov 2. Clear your browser cookies specifically for the studentaid.gov domain 3. Check your email again and use the EXACT link from the most recent invitation 4. When logging in, make sure to select "I'm a contributor" not "I'm a student" 5. After logging in, look for the dropdown menu in the top right corner that says "Selected Student" If that doesn't work, the invitation might have expired (they only last 14 days). In that case, ask your daughter to send a new invitation.

nobody ever talks about how terrible the FAFSA website is... they spend millions "improving" it and somehow make it WORSE every year. last year i could easily toggle between my twins applications, now its like a treasure hunt just to find the basic functions. and dont get me started on the new SAI formula!!

I'm a financial aid advisor at a community college and we're seeing this issue constantly with parent contributors this year. It's definitely a UI problem with the redesigned system. The "Selected Student" dropdown is easy to miss because it's small and doesn't look like a clickable element. One thing to note - if your children have different last names or if you used slightly different personal information when creating your FSA ID compared to what your children entered for you, the system sometimes fails to link the accounts properly. In that case, you may need to contact Federal Student Aid directly to resolve the linkage issue. If you have trouble reaching someone (wait times are currently 2-3 hours), you might want to try Claimyr (claimyr.com). They have a service that holds your place in the phone queue and calls you when an agent is available. I've had several students use it successfully for complex FAFSA issues. They have a video demo you can check out: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ

did u ever try clicking "add a student" anywhere? I think theres a button somewhere on the dashboard that lets u add more kids manually even if the invite doesnt work.

The new FAFSA is a nightmare this year. I had to submit my information for three children and the system kept creating new contributor profiles for me instead of linking them. Ended up with THREE separate FSA IDs all tied to the same email address somehow. Finally called FSA and they told me this is a "known issue" they're "working on fixing." Sure. Here's what worked for me after hours of frustration: 1. Use Google Chrome specifically (didn't work in Safari or Firefox for me) 2. Try accessing through a computer rather than your phone app 3. Look for the dropdown in the upper right after logging in 4. If that fails, have your child log in to THEIR account and try to resend the invitation If all else fails, sometimes deleting the parent's entire profile and starting over was the only fix, but then you lose all your previous work. The whole system is held together with digital duct tape.

Can I just vent for a sec about how they made the ENTIRE FAFSA PROCESS more difficult this year? They claimed it would be "simplified" but my cousin's family spent TWENTY HOURS trying to get everything set up properly with FSA IDs for both parents and acceptance of invitations. Schools are reporting way fewer successful submissions this year because of all the technical issues. My daughter's college financial aid office said they're seeing a 30% drop in completed applications! That means many kids won't get the aid they qualify for just because the system is so broken.

UPDATE: I finally figured it out! For anyone else struggling with this issue, the key is that small dropdown menu in the upper right corner that says "Selected Student" - it's really easy to miss because it doesn't look clickable. Once I found that, I could switch between both kids' applications. Thanks everyone for your help - especially the suggestion about the dropdown menu location! Now I just need to figure out how to report our 529 plans correctly so they don't count against us too much in the SAI calculation...