Completing the FAFSA is a critical step in college enrollment. The form is the gateway to billions of dollars in grants from the federal government, states, foundations and colleges. It is needed for access to federal loans and work-study jobs and can determine whether low-income students enter or remain in college.
About 340,000 students from mixed-status households submit the form each year, according to the Education Department. Those numbers could grow as the immigration advocacy group FWD.us estimates that approximately 491,000 students aged 17-21 have at least one undocumented parent.
For Gonzalez, FAFSA was a straightforward process the first time he filled out the form as a transfer student to WSU Tri-Cities in 2022. Before then, he had paid out of pocket to attend a local community college, but pursuing a double major at a university would require more money and neither of his parents could afford to help.
With his first FAFSA, Gonzalez’s mother, like other parents without Social Security numbers, had to print, sign and mail a signature page for his application to be processed. That was standard protocol until this year. Now, undocumented parents must create a Federal Student Aid ID and answer a few questions to verify their identity. But the new process took months to work.
After completing his portion of the FAFSA in late January, Gonzalez tried to create an FSA ID for his mom but kept getting stuck. He would enter her name, date of birth, mailing address and then try to click on a box indicating that she was unable to provide a Social Security number. A glitch in the system would not let him check the box.
“I couldn’t get past that last step,” he said. “We kept trying to make an account for two months and nothing would work.”
A breakthrough
By mid-March, Gonzalez thought the situation would turn around after the Education Department made a technical update that let undocumented parents contribute to the financial aid form. Yet the fix didn’t work for him.
Gonzalez called the FAFSA helpline multiple times. Sometimes he would get an automated message asking callers to try again later because of “high call volumes.” Other times the line would get disconnected.
In April, he was finally able to create an FSA ID for his mother. Then new problems emerged.
Gonzalez clicked a button on his financial aid application to invite his mother to add her information. But the invitation never showed up, no matter how many times he sent it, he said.
“My mom was getting an email every week saying ‘Please help Jesse complete his application or he won’t be eligible for financial aid.’ It was so stressful because she was doing everything she could to help,” Gonzalez said.
By then, he was days away from his college’s June 1 deadline to complete the FAFSA. Doubt started to set in.
“I just kept thinking: ‘I’m at the end of the line but will I make it to the end?’” Gonzalez said. “Obviously, I could take out loans … but why should I have to when I know I qualify for grants?”
Gonzalez turned to his college financial aid office for help as he began questioning whether to re-enroll in college. Jana Kay Lunstad, director of financial aid at WSU Tri-Cities, assured Gonzalez that the university would find funding for him if the situation wasn’t resolved by the beginning of the semester.
“There’s so much at stake for this young man,” Lunstad said. “This is a student who is on track to graduate, who has lined up a high-paying job. We’re going to work with him, and all the students who are in similar positions.”
On the first Friday in June, past the school’s deadline for completing the FAFSA, Lunstad, Gonzalez and his mom spent an hour on the phone with Education Department staff still trying to resolve whatever error was preventing the completion of the FAFSA. Lunstad said the rep encouraged Gonzalez to submit the paper form, which he and his mom filled out in her office that day.
The trouble is, the Education Department has yet to process the approximately 47,000 paper applications that it has received to date. On July 11, the department said it identified issues that have delayed the process, which was already weeks behind.
And that’s not the only loose end the department needs to tie up.
Identity verification
If unfixed, the problems with identity verification for mixed-status families could be a barrier for students who need financial aid in 2025.
After undocumented parents had trouble verifying their identity, the federal agency in April said their U.S.-born children could temporarily finish the FAFSA before that process was completed. Then the Education Department warned that it will restrict the accounts of any parent who fails to verify their identity before the beginning of the 2025-26 application cycle, effectively blocking those students from applying for aid for the fall of 2025.
Identity verification is cumbersome. Parents without a Social Security number must answer up to four questions supplied by the credit agency TransUnion, such as their previous street address or employer. If the information doesn’t match the company’s records, parents must then complete a signed form and submit a utility bill, foreign passport or consular identification card to the Education Department.
Some parents never got the TransUnion questions and instead received error messages directing them to start the manual option. Any missteps, or even a typo in a document, could derail the process.
A spokesperson for the Education Department said it’s working on the problem. “Allowing those without an SSN to enter the form without completing the identity validation process will remain in place while we work on the longer-term solution.”
Silvia E. Marquez, executive director of financial aid and scholarships at the University of California at San Diego said her office is scheduling one-on-one sessions with students and parents and calling the department to try to finish the application.
“Each one is taking an hour, if not more, and we’re in July, Marquez said. “My fear is people are going to give up.”
