Students and all contributors must register for an FSA ID to complete and sign the online FAFSA.

To better protect your information, your FSA ID now requires a two-step verification process. To create one, you’ll need your name, social security number, and either an email address or phone number. Note: You will need your FSA ID to submit your FAFSA, but it could take up to five days to create your FSA ID. 

The ability to create an FSA ID has historically been limited only to parents who can be verified with a Social Security Number (SSN). Effective with the 2024-2025 FAFSA, all parent and spouse contributors without a SSN can create one using the Department of Education's newly developed system to validate identity. Check out these step by step instructions on how contributors without a SSN can obtain a FSA ID. 

All contributors are encouraged to create the FSA ID as soon as they are able to. Set up your FSA ID on studentaid.gov now to make sure it is ready to sign the 2025-2026 FAFSA.

A contributor is anyone who is required to provide information, a signature, and consent to have their federal tax information (FTI) transferred directly into the FAFSA. This may include the student’s biological or adoptive parents, a step-parent, or a student’s spouse.

The FAFSA form is student-driven, which means the answers provided by the student will determine who is a contributor. 

Contributors will each log in to the FAFSA separately with their own FSA ID account. Then, they will complete their own section and answer questions that only they can view. All contributors must provide their financial information and will be required to sign the FAFSA.

In order to be eligible for federal student aid, students and contributors must provide consent to have their federal tax information (FTI) transferred directly into the FAFSA from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Providing consent even applies to contributors who don't have a Social Security Number, didn't file taxes, or who filed taxes outside the US.

Tax data will be automatically transferred directly from the IRS into your application, streamlining the process and reducing the number of questions you’ll be required to answer. Please be aware that you, and your FAFSA contributors, will not have the ability to see or modify the FTI when completing the FAFSA online. 

The student and all contributors must provide this consent and approval on the FAFSA in order to be eligible for federal student aid.

If you are unable to provide parental data due to either unusual circumstances or other situations including homelessness or risk of homelessness, your FAFSA will be processed with a provisional independent status.

This allows for your Student Aid Index (SAI) to be calculated and your eligibility for the Federal Pell Grant to be determined upfront. OSFA will then follow up with you to submit additional documentation and complete the processing of your financial aid offer.

The update to the 2024-2025 FAFSA required an overhaul of many pieces of the FAFSA. Some of the known issues impacting the 2024-2025 FAFSA will unfortunately, still be an issue with the 2025-2025 FAFSA. 

For a complete list of known issues, including potential workarounds, please refer to the FAFSA Issue Alerts page. This page will be updated regularly by the Department of Education.

At this time, here are some of the errors and issues that the Department of Education is working to resolve:

Errors for Students:

• A student who indicates they do not have a social security number is unable to continue or start a new form after they exited before the “State or legal residence” question.
• A student is unable to proceed past the first student identity section when the mailing address section is blank.
• Graduate students, who are not Pell-eligible, are being told they are eligible for the Federal Pell Grant via FAFSA Submission Summary.

Errors for Contributors (parent/spouse):

• A student’s or contributor’s (parent/spouse) signature is removed after they return to a saved FAFSA form.
• Parent/Contributor without a social security number will need to manually enter in tax/financial information.

We know the updates to the FAFSA have presented challenges for not only our students but also their parents and supporters. If you are unable to submit your FAFSA due to one of these issues, we encourage users to continue returning to your application on studentaid.gov periodically to watch for updates or contact Federal Student Aid directly.