Last updated: July 15, 2025

General

Q: Do any of the recent Executive Orders (EOs) affect any questions on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)?
A: An EO issued on January 20, 2025 related to "biological truth" will require an adjustment be made on the question currently related to gender. The order indicates that for all federal processes and forms, there are only two allowable responses – male or female. The gender question on the 2024-25 and 2025-26 FAFSAs will be modified soon. The question will ask about the applicant’s sex and will only provide male and female as answer options. The nonbinary and prefer to answer options will be removed from the form. This does not require any changes for those who have already filed the form. Please note: if a student opts to go in and make any correction to the FAFSA after the question is modified, it they previously chose nonbinary or prefer not to answer, they will be directed to this question and must choose male or female in order for the all the corrections to be processed.

Q: The Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) has released new information to combat fraudulent FAFSAs being submitted. What messaging may students receive? What steps are being implemented to combat attempted fraud?
A: On June 6, FSA sent an Electronic Announcement announcing efforts to thwart fraud in the FAFSA process. FSA went in and selected approximately 125,000 FAFSAs to go through the identity verification process (the V4 verification tracking group) and sent updated ISIRs to the colleges indicating that the form had now been selected for verification. Colleges are required to follow through on that process. Those selections were focused on students slated to be first-time aid recipients this summer. The new guidance removes the requirement for a student to have to sign a Statement of Educational Purpose. The primary method to resolve this type of verification will be as follows:

If an institution determines that an applicant is unable to appear in person to present an unexpired, valid, government-issued photo identification, the applicant can now have the option of appearing on a video call to present an unexpired, valid, government-issued photo identification to an institutionally authorized individual who will review the identification. The applicant can still, but will no longer be required to, submit a copy of their identification document that is acknowledged in a notary statement or that is presented to a notary. The video call option will require the institution to maintain a scanned copy (electronic or hardcopy) of the identification documentation that includes the date it was presented and the name of the authorized representative that reviewed the documentation. This can be accomplished through a screenshot of the video call that has legible details of the identification. The US Department of Education (ED) will consider a student’s identity to be verified if the student’s identity was verified by an entity that is compliant with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Identity Assurance Level 2 (NIST IAL2). In this instance, an institution must retain documentation of the date that the student’s identity was verified and the entity that performed the verification. More information on these requirements will be provided in the future. Incarcerated students can have their identity validated by a responsible official at their facility.

FSA is planning on having a more efficient process in place this fall. They are working to identify a vendor who can conduct this identity verification process at the time the FAFSA is being completed. When the new process is ready, it will be shared here.

Q: What calendar year tax information will be required on the 2025-26 FAFSA?
A: 2023

Q: Now that the 2025-26 FAFSA has opened, what processing functionalities are available to the student?
A: FSA has made the form live with full functionality. The student should receive a confirmation email upon submission and the form is slated to be processed within one-to-three days. When the form is processed, the student should receive an email notification and be able to immediately access their FAFSA Submission Summary. The corrections function will be available. The processed FAFSA information will be sent to the state agency and institutions listed as soon as the form is processed.

Q: Is there FAFSA support available in languages beyond English and Spanish?
A: Yes. FSA has provided guides in several other languages that can be found here.

Q: Have any recent issues been noted that are preventing the FAFSA from being submitted?
A: NCAN has received multiple reports from members that some dependent students are having difficulty submitting the FAFSA in cases where the tax filing is married filing jointly. The system has presented two circumstances to these students. The first is that the system is requiring the second contributor to have an FSA ID, log-in, grant consent and sign the form. This should not be required for that tax filing status. There are also several reports of an error messaging appearing on the screen that will not let them advance through the form. NCAN has reported this issue to FSA several times and awaits a resolution. A workaround that has been successful for some students is to delete the FAFSA and have one of the parents begin the form and invite the student. This situation has been reported more often when on of the contributors does not have a Social Security number (SSN).

Q: The student and any contributor whose information is required on the FAFSA must create a StudentAid.gov account (FSA ID). For dependent students with two parents in the household, do both parents need to have an FSA ID?
A: The answer is dependent on the marital status and/or the tax filing status of the parents. If the parents are unmarried and living together or the parents filed separately for their 2023 tax form, both parents will need to establish an FSA ID, login to form to grant consent, complete their section, and sign the form. If the parents are married and filed jointly (and both parents have an SSN) only one parent needs to establish an FSA ID and grant consent, complete the parent section, and sign the form. That parent will be required to provide demographic information about the other parent if the student did not do so when inviting them to the form. In the case of married filing jointly when one of the parents does not have an SSN, the system now requires only one parent to have an FSA ID to login, grant consent, and sign the form. For married independent students, the spouse will need an FSA ID unless they filed taxes jointly in 2023.

Q: For those contributors without an SSN, what attestation form should they use to complete the identity verification process?
A: As of September 29, 2024, there is a new online process for completing an online version of an attestation form. The contributor should check the confirm and certify box highlighted below. As of December 6, 2024, FSA announced that they are taking steps to enhance the process related to identify verification. Until then, they will no longer send emails with case numbers, those with an SSN are instructed to not submit any identity documents until they develop a new system, and the IDVerification email address has been closed. They are also adding several items to the list of acceptable documents. Please see full details in the NCAN blog. 

Q: Is there a new notification to students and/or parents after they grant consent to have their information loaded into the FAFSA?
A: Yes - when a person grants consent for their information to be transferred, this screen will immediately appear:

If the person was a non-filer or FSA was unable to transfer information, this screen will appear for students and/or parents:

If this screen appears, the student/parent will be required to provide their financial information manually into the FAFSA.

Q: What happens if the number for household size is not brought into the FAFSA when transferring the data from the IRS and therefore no Student Aid Index (SAI) calculates?
A: This is a known issue identified by FSA in November 2024 that they have since issued a workaround for. Since the FAFSA did not properly collect the parent household size, the parent should initiate a correction to input their family size information manually. The parent should navigate to the financial section and select “YES” to the question “Has your family size changed since you last filed your taxes?” and then manually enter their family size number. Once this change has been made, the parent can submit the correction and the student’s SAI will be calculated.

Q: Will the number of family members in college still be used in determining SAI?
A: No. The recent legislation removed the number of family members in college from the formula. However, the question will remain on the form and will be required to be answered. This information may be used by the colleges if they wish to take it into consideration when awarding institutional aid.

Q: Will small business and family farm net values still be exempt when reporting assets?
A: No. The recent legislation removed the exemption for reporting the net value of businesses with less than 100 employees and family farms. The net value of these assets will need to be included when the student/family is required to answer the asset questions.

Q: Will FSA enforce the 45-day submission window for deleting FAFSAs that were not submitted?
A: FSA has indicated that as of October 2024 they will not turn on the 45-day enforcement window for the 2024-25 or the 2025-26 FAFSA. If there is a change in this policy for either year, FSA will make a public announcement.

Q: What are the hours that the FSA Information Center are available for calls?
A: The Call Center recently reduced the days and hours that they are available to receive calls. The hours the Center and live chat are open include:

Monday: 8AM-9PM ET
Tuesday–Wednesday: 8AM-8PM ET
Thursday–Friday: 8AM-6PM ET
Saturday, Sunday, and federal holidays: Closed

StudentAid.gov Account (FSA ID)

Q: Has FSA recently updated the matching process for those establishing or who have a StudentAid.gov account that do not have an SSN?
A: Yes. In February of 2025, there was an adjustment to simplify the matching process. Previously, if a student invited a parent without an SSN to contribute to their FAFSA, the address the student provided in the FAFSA was required to match the address in the parent’s account EXACTLY in order to make the connection. With this change, FSA now allows a connection to be made when there are common small differences in the two addresses, such as punctuation differences, “St” vs. Street”, “Apt” vs “Apartment”, etc. This should allow for a significant increase in the number of successful invites of parents without SSNs. Note that this change is applicable when the parent already has an account prior to the invite.

Q: For contributors without an SSN who need to set up an FSA ID, if they are sent to the manual identity verification process, do they need to submit the Attestation Form and required documents prior to logging in and completing their section of the FAFSA?
A: FSA has announced that the identity verification process will continue to be waived for the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle. As of December 6, 2024, FSA announced that they are taking steps to enhance the process related to identify verification. Until then, they will no longer send emails with case numbers, those with an SSN are instructed to not submit any identity documents until they develop a new system, and the IDVerification email address has been closed. They are also adding several items to the list of acceptable documents. Please see full details in the NCAN blog.

Q: What does it mean if a student attempts to set up the StudentAid.gov (FSA ID) account for the first time and receives a message that the SSN they are using is already associated with an account?
A: There are several reasons why this might occur. Students should check with parents to make sure they have not already set up an FSA ID for them as well as double-check the SSN used to create the account. Students should be advised to attempt the account recovery process to see if that gives them access to their account. If they are unable to do that, they should call the FSA Information Center to discuss the situation and see if any assistance exists for them.

It has been reported in several states that students who are finding accounts already established with their SSN may be the result of a fraudulent act. FSA has provided some information when a student believes this is the case. Students should thoroughly review the Avoiding Student Scams web page. If they believe their SSN has been used by someone else, students should file a complaint here. On this page, the student will see the following:

Below are steps to take and examples for filing a claim:

• Accept the disclaimer
• Click "Yes" on the question displayed below

• Enter your contact information
• Enter the alleged violator's information:
  • Entity Type: Individual Information
  • First Name: Unknown
  • Last Name: Unknown

Enter the allegation description:

• Begin the allegation field description with:
• Student: “Per instructions provided by the OIG, I am [Name], and I live in [City, State]. I am reporting [description of alleged fraud/identity theft and include where the FSAID is being used if known].”
• Example from KHEAA: “Per instructions provided by the OIG, I am [Name, Title, and Organization], and I am reporting suspicious activity involving [description of alleged fraud].”
  • Upload a spreadsheet that includes Last Name, First Name, SSN, city, State, and comments containing pertinent information. 
• Click on “Add/View Attachments” and upload any supporting documentation
• Click "Submit"

Students who contact the FSA Call Center may also receive these instructions in the case of fraud.

Q: When is it anticipated that colleges will be able to do batch corrections to submitted FAFSAs on behalf of students?
A: FSA launched the batch correction feature for college in February 2025. Some colleges participated in beta testing for the process before it opened to all colleges. This process should speed up processing for colleges as they make adjustments to student information.

These FAQs are also available to download as Microsoft Word or PDF documents.