A Social Security Number (SSN) is required for students who are looking to complete the FAFSA, except for students who are residents of the Freely Associated States (Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau). If the student SSN field is blank for online and paper FAFSAs, the FAFSA will not be processed.
While the ability to create an FSA ID has historically been limited only to parents who can be verified with a Social Security Number (SSN), now all parent and spouse contributors without a SSN can create one using the Department of Education's newly developed system to validate identity. This allows all contributors, including undocumented individuals, to create an FSA ID. Check out these step by step instructions on how to contributors without a SSN can obtain a FSA ID.