Federal Student Aid has resolved several technical problems related to parents or contributors without a Social Security Number as part of its commitment to improving the 2024-25 FAFSA. However, users will still encounter at least two issues and should follow the Department’s recommended workarounds until a permanent solution is announced.
Resolved Issues:
- Contributors will no longer receive an error message stating that they are “unauthorized to act on behalf of the student since they already have a 24-25 FAFSA form.” This applies even if the student has not started an application.
- Contributors can now log in and complete their sections of the FAFSA once the student has sent an electronic invitation after starting an application.
- All users without a SSN, including those with an Individual Taxpayer ID (ITIN), must still enter their financial information manually.
- FSA encourages all impacted users to enter an ITIN, if they have one.
- Once a permanent fix is identified and implemented, the Department will attempt to retrieve their tax information through the DDX.
- Applicants and contributors may encounter an error message when inviting contributors without a SSN to participate in the form. This occurs when there is a mismatch between the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) that is entered on the invitation and what is submitted with the FSA ID creation.
- FSA is currently advising families to wait before they invite contributors without a SSN to their form.
- FSA is working to resolve this issue in the coming days and will provide an update when a resolution is found.
POSTED DATE: March 12, 2024
AUTHOR: Federal Student Aid
ELECTRONIC ANNOUNCEMENT ID: GENERAL-24-19
SUBJECT: Update on Technical Fix to the 2024-25 FAFSA Form for Individuals Without a Social Security Number (SSN)
In the Mar. 4, 2024 Electronic Announcement (EA ID: GENERAL-24-17), the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) committed to resolving the known issues within the 2024-25 FAFSA online form impacting students who have a contributor(s) without a Social Security number (SSN) in the first half of March. We have made technical updates that enable students with contributors without an SSN to now successfully submit the form. Some students in this scenario may still be encountering trouble submitting the form – the Department is aware of these issues and is working on resolutions.
Resolved Issues
As of today, we have implemented and verified two technical fixes that have resolved access for impacted individuals:
- Previously, if a parent with no SSN started the 2024-25 FAFSA form for a student, the parent received an error message on the “Student Information” page. This incorrect error message stated that the user was “unauthorized to act on behalf of the student since they already have a 24-25 FAFSA form” even if the student had not started an application.
- A contributor with no SSN was not able to contribute to the form, even if the student started the application and invited the parent or spouse to contribute. Contributors who were previously impacted by this issue may now log in to FAFSA.gov to complete their section of the online FAFSA form, after they are invited to participate in the form by the student. The Department still recommends that the student start the application and then invite the parent to contribute to their form for the best user experience and to avoid any further glitches.
Remaining Issues
As part of the implementation of this fix, the Department uncovered separate issues that still need to be resolved:
- All users without an SSN, including those with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), have to manually enter their financial information. We still encourage all impacted users to enter an ITIN, if they have one. Once a permanent fix is identified and implemented, the Department will attempt to retrieve federal tax information via the direct data exchange with the IRS and will reprocess the FAFSA, as necessary, to reflect any changes. There is currently no estimated timeline for resolution of this issue.
- Some applicants and their contributors are encountering an error message when inviting contributors without an SSN to participate in their form. This occurs when there is a mismatch of personally identifiable information (PII) that is entered on the invitation compared to the PII attached to the contributor’s StudentAid.gov account, or the person sending the invitation to participate in the FAFSA form sends multiple invitations, often with different variations of PII. Right now, we are advising impacted families to wait to invite any contributors without an SSN to their form. We are working to resolve this issue in the coming days and will provide updates as they are available.
The Department is releasing a new tips document for students who have a contributor without an SSN to help ensure they can successfully navigate the form. Individuals may access the new tips document and sign up to receive updates from the Department on issues impacting students who have contributors without an SSN at https://www.ed.gov/FAFSAContributorUpdates.
We will also post an update to the Issues Alert section of the 2024-25 FAFSA Updates page and to reflect the updates noted in this announcement.