Get the FAFSA done right the first time.
Find out who has to fill it out, fix the errors that stop families cold, and file again each year without starting over.
Who has to fill out the FAFSA?
Anyone who has to give information on the form is called a contributor. Divorced, separated and blended families get this wrong most often. Answer a few questions.
Count money for housing, food, clothes, phone, school costs and so on. Custody and who the student lives with don't decide this.
The student is always a contributor. Your answers tell you who else needs their own StudentAid.gov account.
Based on Federal Student Aid's "Who's my FAFSA parent?" rules as presented by NASFAA. Check StudentAid.gov for unusual situations.
Fix the most common FAFSA errors
Pick the one you're seeing.
"There's already an application on file for this student"
Tax information didn't transfer from the IRS
• Consent is missing. Every contributor has to agree to share tax information, even someone who didn't file taxes. If anyone skips it, the student can't get federal aid.
• Details don't match the IRS. Name, Social Security number and date of birth must match the tax return and Social Security card exactly. Check for nicknames, missing middle initials and old last names.
• The IRS connection didn't finish. Log back in, open the form, and complete the consent and tax section again.
My parent never got the invite, or it expired
I can't get back into a form I didn't finish
I made a mistake after I submitted
The website is slow or keeps erroring out
I'm still stuck
Citizenship and mixed-status families
Federal aid depends on the student's status, not the parents'. Here's what that means for your family.
The student must be a U.S. citizen or an eligible noncitizen, like a green card holder, refugee or asylee. DACA, TPS and undocumented students can't get federal aid, including Pell Grants and federal loans.
The FAFSA doesn't ask about a parent's citizenship. A citizen student with an undocumented parent can file. A parent without a Social Security number can still make a StudentAid.gov account and fill in their part.
For a parent to borrow a PLUS loan, both the parent and the student must be U.S. citizens, nationals or eligible noncitizens.
Some states have their own aid application. In Colorado it's the CASFA, for ASSET students: generally, students who attended a Colorado high school for at least a year right before graduating. It only works at Colorado schools. Going out of state? Ask that school's aid office what to file. Many private scholarships are open too. Use the citizenship question in the Scholarship matcher.
Federal privacy laws limit how FAFSA information can be used. In Colorado, students from mixed-status families who don't feel safe sharing a parent's information can use the CASFA instead. Know the tradeoff: the CASFA covers Colorado state and college aid only, so a citizen student who uses it instead of the FAFSA gives up Pell Grants, federal loans and federal work-study. If you're unsure, talk to a school counselor or the college's aid office before you file.
Filing again for sophomore year and beyond
You file a new FAFSA every year the student is in school. Here's what changes and what to watch.
The 2027-28 FAFSA, for the school year starting fall 2027, uses 2025 tax information. It's open now.
Last year's answers fill in for you to review. Everyone still has to log in and give consent again.
Most school scholarships have rules to renew, like a minimum GPA or credits per year. Find them in your aid letter or student portal and add them to My Plan notes.
The federal deadline is June 30, 2028, but school and state priority deadlines are often in winter or early spring. Some state money runs out.
The form looks back two years. If a job loss, divorce or medical bills changed things since then, ask the aid office about a special circumstances review. We'll write the letter.
Tell the school about any outside awards, and ask how they'll be applied first. Here's the email.