How To Submit the 2024–25 FAFSA® Form if Your Contributor Doesn't Have an SSN
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Effective April 30, 2024, for the 2024-2025 Financial Aid Award Year Only. Texted below copied from Federal Student Aid Electronic Announcement (GENERAL-24-25)
The Department [of Education] is temporarily allowing individuals without an SSN to enter and complete the 2024-25 FAFSA. Students and contributors without an SSN must continue to manually enter their tax information. Students without an SSN must verify their eligible noncitizen status through their school before they receive any federal funds.
What this means for applicants and their families
- New users who request a StudentAid.gov account and cannot validate their identity using the knowledge-based questions (as generated by TransUnion) must still complete the manual process to validate their identity. However, they will not have to wait to have their identity validation completed before they can use their account username and password to access and complete the online 2024-25 FAFSA form.
- Individuals who are currently awaiting the results of the identity validation process may begin using the StudentAid.gov account they created to immediately access the form. The Department will also email these individuals to notify them if they are affected by this change.
- Individuals can check the status of their identity validation on their StudentAid.gov dashboard. If the status on the “Personal Information” page of their Account Settings is “no-SSN” with a green check icon, individuals are able to progress to the FAFSA form. Please note that this status is the same for those who have completed the validation process and those who are temporarily allowed to enter and complete the form. Individuals will receive an email this week if they fall in the latter category.
- Individuals who are currently waiting for results from the Department do not need to resubmit any documentation to complete the identity validation process.
- The Department is aware that there has been some erroneous information posted on public sites regarding the identity validation process, creating confusion for some individuals on where to submit documents and how to start the process. Official guidance for completing the identity validation process for those without an SSN can be found on StudentAid.gov. If an individual’s StudentAid.gov account does not show a status of “no-SSN” with a green check icon and they have not received an email notifying them of this temporary change, they will need to follow the instructions for individuals without an SSN to create a StudentAid.gov account, as they are not currently in the Department’s system.
- The Department encourages all users without an SSN to complete the identity validation process without delay, even after the student’s FAFSA form is submitted. They must complete the validation process before the beginning of the 2025-26 application cycle, and before the IRS data exchange issues are addressed, to avoid their account being placed in a restricted status.
- Undocumented students and students who have received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) remain ineligible for federal student aid. To receive federal student aid, a student must be a U.S. citizen or U.S. national, a citizen of the Freely Associated States, or a lawful U.S. permanent resident or other eligible noncitizen.
If an individual without an SSN continues to have issues logging in to StudentAid.gov, they should contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center for assistance with signing in to their account.