From the anecdotal evidence here, it seems that the move to inviting contributors has caused some issues. What should happen is that each contributor should be able to add their part and provide their signature, at which time the information should be submitted and should link to the student’s FAFSA. This should be independent of the student signing/submitting their FAFSA; if the student hasn’t submitted yet, contributor portion should be sitting in a suspended mode until the student submits. I am guessing that the system is not properly set up for this … as @thumper1 said, this is a big change from the way it worked in the past.
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This is how it should work. I know it must be very frustrating for those of you encountering errors. Eventually, the system will be ironed out for everyone.
I just saw this on the NASFAA website: planned IRS systems outage scheduled for Saturday, January 6, from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET. FSA recommends that applicants wait until the outage is over before completing the 2024-25 FAFSA.
I think you are correct that people might be having issues if the student part is not signed and submitted before parent.
We had no problem at all and I think it was because S24 signed and submitted his part after inviting parent. Parent then did their section and signed and submitted after the student had already signed and submitted.
Student had email confirmation of FAFSA completed and SAI number in same email.
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I’m so sorry for all of you completing the “simplified” FAFSA, because it sounds anything but simplified.
Hang in there.
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I think the issue is the system wouldn’t let the student sign once the student got to the end of his section.
A theory from a few days ago, that student could not sign until parent finalized.
We did S24 student first and it wouldn’t let a signature go through, then switched over to parent - used the inviting link, filled out and signed and then it said submitted.
But ours looks fine from student and parent viewpoint - both show processing, so I think its ok, but never say never!
With S22 it clearly told us to go back and sign student to be finalized.
Am I correct that you now have to use the IRS link for input? Or is there still a manual input option?
No. You have to use the IRS retrieval. It happens as soon as you click that you acknowledge it will be used, which happens early in the completion process. You won’t even be aware that it happened …. You’ll be presented with a couple income questions, and those are based on the tax information imported from IRS. If you don’t agree to IRS sharing, you aren’t eligible for federal aid.
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And if you, for some reason, didn’t complete your tax return…the same. It has to be done for the year for that FAFSA.
@kelsmom what about folks who are not required to file a tax return?
It links and verifies that no return was filed. I assume that they will get questions about untaxed income at that point.
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Thanks that’s what I thought. I always entered manually since I hate that I can’t see what it imports and it’ll be months before we get next year’s financial aid. Though I guess that’s mostly from CSS (we get a ton of aid but not Pell eligible - but do get subsidized loans and work study). I guess the SAI will let me know that it’s approx right. I’m just waiting until the excitement dies down since it’s for a returning student so probably another couple weeks before I try. Thx.
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I cannot make my parent ID. My form won’t continue past the address and phone number page. Is this a glitch? Or am I missing something?
Try leaving those fields blank. You can fill them in later if it lets you advance.
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FYI. Apparently the irs system will be down which impacts the FAFSA being filled out.
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I can’t find this answer on the FAFSA site.
If you have previously filled out fafsa for another year, do you need to get a new fafsa ID? Or do you use the credentials from last year?
Use the previous credentials
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So my original understanding was that the FAFSA application would be processed in 3-5 business days. But people have reported after calling in that it will be the “end of January” before processing is finalized.
Obviously, the main concern is for those who need to amend/edit their original submission.
People are also worried that their FAFSA went into submission status before parent or student signatures were submitted, so these applications will be kicked back.
*I think its crazy that somehow the FAFSA could be submitted without both signatures, but it apparently is happening to people (per this thread and FB groups)
Note: the Student Aid Report (SAR) is now called the FAFSA Submission Summary (FSS). When the FAFSA has been processed, the student will receive an email like this: https://fsapartners.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2023-12/FAFSASubmissionSummary2425SampleEN.pdf. This sample was provided to the financial aid community today. I don’t know when students will begin receiving them. Only some students will be selected for verification, so most students won’t see that box checked. I noticed that the sample includes a section indicating that the school made some changes … obviously, this would only appear in the future if a school makes changes, and it will notify the student that something was changed (it won’t say what - you’d have to compare it to the previous submission summary to see if it was something that made a difference). So I’m thinking that this sample is just a representation of the way it might look for you - the actual information on yours will differ.
But the student will not receive this until the FAFSA has been fully processed. Again, I don’t know what the timing is. I don’t think you will want to replace schools until you get this.
The interesting thing is about verification. Two years ago I didn’t use the tax link (which a lot of people avoided) and, not surprisingly, was selected for verification. I think I found out 5 minutes after I submitted FAFSA.
But the only thing I needed to do was to submit our tax returns to the college S22 was going to attend.
Now that tax returns are automatically linked and part of the FAFSA submission, it will be interesting what criteria they will use for verification.
My guess is it will be a lot less people than prior years.
That is the hope! We shall see.
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