FAFSA Issues | Financial Aid

STUDENT WHO INCORRECTLY SELECTS “ELIGIBLE NONCITIZEN” ON FAFSA FORM PREVENTED FROM COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING FORM AFTER CORRECTION

Description: If a student who is a citizen initially selects "Eligible noncitizen" on the 2024-25 FAFSA form, enters an “A-Number” when prompted, and completes the demographic section, the student is prevented from completing the form even after the student changes the citizenship status response to "U.S. citizen or national". In this situation, the A-Number is not removed from the form and the student cannot proceed beyond the “Select Colleges” question. The student receives no error message to explain this situation and is prevented from completing and submitting the form.

Workaround: The student can delete the existing application and then start a new 2024-25 FAFSA form online.

SOME SCHOOL NAMES ARE TRUNCATED ON COLLEGE SEARCH PAGE

Description: When searching for a school from the 2024-25 FAFSA form, the full name of a school may not be displayed on the screen. In the case of a school with multiple programs or locations, this makes it difficult for a user to know which entry to select.

Workaround: The user can search by Federal School Code instead of by School Name to identify the correct school entry. School codes can be located via Internet search.

GRADUATE STUDENTS WITH PELL-ELIGIBLE SAI PRESENTED INCORRECT PELL GRANT ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION ON FAFSA SUBMISSION CONFIRMATION EMAILS AND PAGES

Description: Graduate students who are notified of having a Pell-eligible Estimated Student Aid Index (SAI) after submitting a 2024-25 FAFSA are shown an incorrect message stating they may be eligible for a specific Federal Pell Grant amount. Although a graduate student could have an SAI that is Pell-eligible, the graduate student is ineligible to receive a Federal Pell Grant and should not receive the incorrect message.

Workaround: A graduate student who receives the incorrect message should be advised to disregard the message as graduate students are ineligible to receive Federal Pell Grants.

SPOUSE CONTRIBUTOR INVITATION PAGE DOES NOT APPEAR AFTER USER CHANGES MARITAL STATUS FROM MARRIED FILING JOINTLY TO MARRIED FILING SEPARATLY

Description: In the case of a user who is married and has filed jointly (Married Filing Jointly), the user must enter the spouse’s personally identifiable information but does not need to invite the spouse to contribute to the 2024-25 FAFSA form. If the user changes the marital status response to Married Filing Separately after the spouse information has already been entered, the user is not shown the page to invite the spouse even though an invitation is now required to capture the spouse’s financial information.

Workaround: Impacted customers should log in to StudentAid.gov, navigate to My Activity, and select “Edit Contributor Information” and then “Update Information”. Re-entering the spouse’s information will effectively remove and re-add the contributor, allowing an invitation to be sent.

STUDENT UNABLE TO PROCEED PAST STUDENT IDENTITY AND INFORMATION PAGE WHEN MAILING ADDRESS SECTION IS BLANK

Description: If the mailing address section on the Student Identity and Information page is blank on a student’s 2024-25 FAFSA form, it means the student does not have an address stored in the FSA ID system.

Workaround: Impacted customers should go to Account Settings, navigate to the Contact Information page, select the terms and conditions checkbox, and click save. These actions associate the student’s address that appears under Settings with the FSA ID. Once the student navigates back to the FAFSA form, the mailing address will populate on the Student Identity and Information page.

PARENT UNABLE TO ACCESS FAFSA DESPITE STARTING APPLICATION ON BEHALF OF STUDENT

Description: In some cases, a parent who has started a 2024-25 FAFSA form on behalf of a student is unable to continue past the Student Information page and receives an error message stating that there is already an application on file for the student. This happens very rarely when the system creates a FAFSA but fails to generate and attach the student’s record to the application. If there is no student record attached to a FAFSA, then a parent will not be able to access the application beyond the Student Information page.

Workaround: A parent who encounters this issue will need the student to access or restart the 2024-25 FAFSA form. If the student logs in to StudentAid.gov and does not see the application under My Activity, the student will need to navigate to the FAFSA landing page, start a new form as a student, and invite the parent to the application. This action will nullify the previous FAFSA form initiated by the parent.

FAFSA APPLICATION STATUS IS “IN PROGRESS” EVEN WHEN USER IS READY TO SUBMIT FAFSA

Description: If a 2024-25 FAFSA form has all required information and the only remaining actions are for signature/submission, the status of the FAFSA form in My Activity will display as “In Progress” for any users/contributors that do not have those remaining actions. For example, if a dependent student completes the student section but does not submit and the student’s parent completes the parent section, the FAFSA form status displays as In Progress to the parent because the student still needs to submit. As a result of the In Progress status, the parent may not realize what action is required to finalize the form.

Workaround: Student can enter the application and navigate through the end of the application to finalize and submit the application.

CONFIRM ACCOUNT SETTINGS DOES NOT CONTINUE PAST FIRST PAGE FOR USER WITH FOREIGN ADDRESS AND NO ERROR MESSAGE SHOWN

Description: When logging in to the 2024-25 FAFSA form for the first time, a user with a foreign country address is unable to confirm the user’s Account Settings. Due to the state field being disabled, a validation error prevents the user from moving forward.

Workaround: The user can temporarily modify the user’s address in Account Settings to one in the U.S. to proceed past the settings confirmation. Then the user can return to Account Settings and change the address to the user’s foreign country address.

MARRIED STUDENT OR PARENT WHO DOES NOT PROVIDE SPOUSE’S INFORMATION BEFORE LEAVING 2024-25 FAFSA FORM WILL NOT BE ABLE TO COMPLETE AND SUBMIT FORM UPON RE-ENTRY

Description: If a married student or parent starts to enter a spouse’s information on the “Invite your spouse to the FAFSA Form” page but then exits the 2024-25 FAFSA form from that page without completing the information, the student or parent will not be able to add this information when the student or parent re-enters the form and will be prevented from submitting the form.

Workaround: The married student or parent in this situation can re-enter the 2024-25 FAFSA form, manually navigate back to the start of the “Financials” section, move through the form to the “Invite your spouse to the FAFSA Form” page, complete the information on that page in full, and then select “Continue” to complete and submit the 2024-25 FAFSA form online.

STUDENT WITH NO SSN THAT EXITED FAFSA FORM BEFORE “STATE OF LEGAL RESIDENCY” QUESTION UNABLE TO CONTINUE FORM OR START NEW FORM

Description: If a student with no Social Security number (SSN) starts the 2024-25 FAFSA form but saves and exits before answering the “State of Legal Residency” question, the student will be unable to continue the application later. The student will no longer see the FAFSA draft in “My Activity” and will be unable to start a new FAFSA, as the student will see a message that a FAFSA is already on file.

Workaround: There is currently no workaround to this issue. The student will be able to complete the 2024-25 FAFSA Form online once the issue is resolved.

PARENT WITH NO SSN UNABLE TO START FAFSA FORM FOR STUDENT OR CONTRIBUTE TO AN EXISTING FORM

Description: If a parent with no Social Security number (SSN) starts the 2024-25 FAFSA form for a student, the parent will receive an error message on the “Student Information” page. This incorrect error message states that the user is “unauthorized to act on behalf of the student since they already have a 24-25 FAFSA form” even if the student has not started an application. A parent with no SSN also is not able to contribute to the form, even if the student starts the application and invites the parent to contribute.

Workaround: There is currently no workaround for a parent without an SSN. A student may start the application, but the parent will not be able to contribute the parent information. The student and parent will be able to complete the 2024-25 FAFSA form online once the issue is resolved.

FEDERAL SCHOOL CODES FOR INACTIVE SCHOOLS OR LOCATIONS PRESENTED TO STUDENTS ON FAFSA FORM PRIOR TO JAN. 6, 2024

Description: From the start of the soft launch period through Jan. 5, 2024, some students who searched from the 2024-25 FAFSA form for a school to enter on the FAFSA were presented with a Federal School Code associated with that school that had previously been deactivated. There was no way for the student to know that a deactivated Federal School Code had been selected, and the student submitted the 2024-25 FAFSA with the deactivated Federal School Code. On Jan. 6, 2024, we implemented a fix to prevent deactivated Federal School Codes from being presented to students on the 2024-25 FAFSA from that date forward.

Workaround: There is no workaround for a student who submitted a 2024-25 FAFSA prior to Jan. 6, 2024 and included one or more deactivated Federal School Codes; however, the issue will be resolved with transmission of the student’s 2024-25 FAFSA results to schools and re-notification to the student.

In many cases, a deactivated Federal School Code will cross-reference to the correct Federal School Code within the system and will be sent automatically in the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) to a school’s active Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) mailbox. If there is no cross-reference to the correct Federal School Code within the system, the Federal School Code will be set to all zeroes and the student will be instructed in the subsequent FAFSA Submission Summary to update the student’s 2024-25 FAFSA via the FAFSA Corrections process.

STUDENTS UNABLE TO SAVE OR SUBMIT FAFSA FORM WHEN ENTERING AN A-NUMBER THAT ENDS IN ZERO

Description: If a student selects the Eligible Noncitizen status on the 2024-25 FAFSA form and proceeds to enter an A-Number that ends in zero, the student receives an error message stating that the application failed to save. This message displays to the student on each subsequent page, regardless of the data the student enters in the form. As a result of the application not saving, the student is unable to proceed beyond the “Selected Colleges and Career Schools” page to the “Review” page.

Workaround: There is currently no work around to this issue. The student will be able to complete and submit the 2024-25 FAFSA form online once the issue is resolved.

SOME STUDENTS WITH BIRTH YEAR OF 2000 ARE CONTINUOUSLY LOOPED TO STUDENT UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES PAGE

Description: Some students who have a birth year of 2000 are unable to review and submit a 2024-25 FAFSA form because they are continuously looped to the Student Unusual Circumstances page. The student receives no error message to explain why this is happening and despite being able to temporarily navigate past the Student Unusual Circumstances page the loop recurs and prohibits review and submission of the form.

Workaround: There is currently no workaround to this issue; however, FSA has identified its cause and is working to implement a fix. The student will be able to complete the 2024-25 FAFSA Form online once the issue is resolved.

2024-25 FAFSA Issues