FAFSA Filing Issues and Tips

Who needs an FSA ID?

• Student
• Student's Spouse, if student is married
• All Parent Contributors, even if only one parent will be needed to grant consent (For help determining who your required parent contributor is, please visit our Who Fills Out the FAFSA webpage.)

Students and Parent Contributors who have not previously created an FSA ID must do so at studentaid.gov. Please note that it takes 3-5 days for Federal Student Aid to complete the required Social Security database validation. The FSA ID must be validated before it can be fully utilized for FAFSA completion. This means that students and parents should apply for an FSA ID at least a week prior to completing the FAFSA. There are negative impacts when an FSA ID is used prior to completed validation. These include:

• Inability to use the IRS Direct Data Exchange requiring manual tax entry and subsequent FAFSA updates and corrections
• Issues preventing submission of Parent Contributor invitations
• Problems logging back into the FAFSA if it is not submitted in one session

When typing out the address for a student or parent, ensure that you are typing out the entire name of the state instead of an abbreviation. Abbreviations for states will not allow you to advance to the next section. 

If you are unable to proceed past the page with your address, remove your address and continue with only your phone number and email. After completing the FSA ID process, add your address by logging into studentaid.gov and editing the contact information under settings.

For best results, the student should begin the FAFSA and send an invitation to contribute to ONE parent. The form allows students to send invitations to two parents/contributors, but it is recommended to invite only one parent. If the form requires another parent to contribute, it will ask the first invited parent to send an invitation to the second parent. 

A Parent Contributor who starts the 2025-26 FAFSA on behalf of a student is unable to continue beyond the Student Information page. They may receive an error message stating there is already an application on file for the student. 

A parent who encounters this error must log out of the FAFSA and request the student access the 2025-26 FAFSA. The student can navigate to the FAFSA under My Activity or begin a new FAFSA if they did not previously create one. This action will nullify the previous FAFSA initiated by the parent. 

When completing the FAFSA, there are several times the student and Parent Contributor are required to report a state. These questions include the student and parent state of legal residence, selection of high school, selection of colleges to receive your FAFSA data, and driver's license state. The state fields operate as a dropdown box. If you type out the entire name of your state "o-h-i-o," the field doesn't recognize as the state of Ohio. Rather, you should type the first few letters of your state (i.e. o-h) and when the full name of your state appears below the box, select it to populate the full state name.

Students will need to invite contributors to their FAFSA based on their dependency status and marital status. Review the scenarios below to determine who must be invited as a contributor:

• A dependent student who has a parent contributor who is not currently married/remarried or not living with the student's other parent -
  • Invite only the parent contributor
• A dependent student who has a parent contributor who is currently married and filed 2023 taxes as married, filing separately -
  • Invite the parent contributor
  • Invite the spouse of the parent contributor
• A dependent student who has a parent contributor who is unmarried, but living with the student's other parent and did not file 2023 taxes as married, filing jointly -
  • Invite both parents as contributors
• A dependent student who has a parent contributor who is currently married and filed 2023 taxes as married, filing jointly -
  • Invite only one parent contributor
    • The parent contributor will provide their spouse's information when completing the parent portion of the FAFSA.
• An independent student who is unmarried -
  • No contributor is needed
• An independent student who is married and filed 2023 taxes as married, filing jointly -
  • No contributor is needed
    • The student will provide their spouse's information when completing their FAFSA.
• An independent student who is married and filed 2023 taxes with any status other than married, filing jointly -
  • Invite spouse as a contributor

When arriving at the screen to invite one or two parents to contribute to your FAFSA, it is best to invite only one parent to contribute even though there is an option to invite two parents. It is important to type correctly the parent's first name, last name, date of birth and Social Security Number. Do not use any auto-complete browser functionality. Doing so can cause a "phantom space" to appear in the fields. This space will prevent a student from continuing to complete the FAFSA. To ensure no phantom spaces are in your fields, place your cursor at the end of the name field to determine if a space was added. If so, use the backspace key to delete the space, which will allow you to submit contributor data. 

There are only a few scenarios requiring a student to invite more than one parent as a FAFSA contributor. If a student's parent is married and completed their 2023 taxes as married, filing jointly, only one parent is required to be invited as a contributor. If a married parent filed 2023 taxes with a different filing status (i.e. married, filing separately or the parent marital status has changed in 2024 or 2025), the student may need to invite two parent contributors. If you have questions, please reach out to our office for assistance.

Although parents may receive and read their Parent Contributor invitation email on their mobile device, it is important they do not attempt to complete their portion of the FAFSA on their phone or tablet. Students and parents must use a laptop (or desktop computer) to ease FAFSA submission. Additionally, Federal Student Aid recommends students and parents use an updated version of Google Chrome when completing the FAFSA. 

There are several rare circumstances that require a student or parent to provide their tax information manually. This is generally related to tax filing status for 2023 differing from their current marital status or individuals who filed taxes in a U.S. territory or foreign country. Below are some of those circumstances:

• The contributor’s marital status has changed since filing their 2023 tax return, e.g., parents filed a 2023 joint tax return but are separated, divorced, or remarried when filing the FAFSA
• The contributor filed taxes in a U.S. territory, commonwealth, or foreign country
• The contributor indicates that they have not filed a 2023 tax return but plan to
• The contributor is a victim of IRS tax-related identity theft
• The contributor did not provide consent to transfer federal tax information (FTI)
• The contributor's identifiers do not match IRS records
• The IRS Direct Data Exchange (FA-DDX) was incomplete
• The IRS was unable to confirm tax return data
• IRS data is unavailable for an IRS system-related outage at the time the FAFSA is being completed

Most students should answer "No" to the questions asking if they would like to only apply for a Direct Unsubsidized Loan. Please be aware that providing parental information on the FAFSA does NOT obligate the parents to pay for college expenses; however, it does allow the student to be considered for all possible federal, state and institutional financial aid resources available.

In rare circumstances, a student's parent may refuse to provide parental data on the FAFSA. A student does have the option to submit the FAFSA without parental data but will only qualify for an Unsubsidized Loan, which accrues interest and is limited to $5,500 for a freshman. This amount will not cover full-time tuition and fees at any Ohio University campus. Students who submit a FAFSA requesting an Unsubsidized loan only will be required to sign an Unsubsidized Loan Only Authorization Form affirming the parents refusal to provide information on the FAFSA and understand they will not be eligible for any need-based aid. This option for obtaining financial aid should only be used as a last resort.

When a student or parent returns to a FAFSA that was previously signed, they may find the previously provided signature is now missing. When this occurs, the student or parent should re-sign the FAFSA, even if the student or parent is not making any changes to other information. It is recommended the student and parent fully complete the FAFSA in one sitting to prevent this error.