Apply for FAFSA but error on application?

kelsmom
Fri, 14 Jan 2011 23:15:13 +0000

Your FAFSA will be rejected. That is what the blank EFC means.

First question: Yes, that is fine. Just make sure you update it once taxes are filed. Realize that if you are awarded aid based on the estimates, the awards might change if the tax numbers change appreciably. You may not even have an award package yet by the time you update the info, though.

Second issue: You must have answered something incorrectly regarding citizenship. You can’t make any changes until the transaction you just submitted is processed. You can go to the FAFSA website & click on View My FAFSA (wait a day or so for it to process). Go through the student information section to see what you may have answered incorrectly. You will eventually get a Student Aid Report (via email if you provided an email address; snail mail otherwise). The SAR will tell you what you answered incorrectly, so there will be no guesswork. You will then click on Make Corrections to My FAFSA & fix it. Don’t forget to provide both your PIN and your parent PIN (or it will reject again).

P.S. Were you born in the U.S.? If not, the Social Security Administration database may not have been updated with your citizenship status. In that case, you won’t fix the FAFSA. Instead, you will contact each school’s financial aid office to ask them what kind of documentation they require to resolve the citizenship issue. They will then lift the flag (called a SAR C flag) that is holding up the calculation of your EFC.