Office of Student Financial Aid

The U.S. Department of Education recently announced changes to streamline the process of accessing and submitting a 2024-25 FAFSA form for individuals without a Social Security number (SSN). 

We are aware there are still challenges making it difficult for a small number of those without an SSN to complete the FAFSA. We’ve released additional guidance on how to address some common issues.

In some cases, applicants have invited contributors without an SSN to access their FAFSA form, but the contributor cannot see their form when they log in to their own StudentAid.gov account.

These applicants should make sure the personal information they entered when inviting the contributor to fill out the FAFSA form exactly matches the information they provided when creating their StudentAid.gov account. If it does not match, they will need to send the contributor a new invite with the correct information. DO NOT use an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) on the invitation in place of an SSN. An ITIN will begin with a “9”, if the student is unclear whether their contributor has an ITIN or SSN.

 If the contributor’s information on their invite and their StudentAid.gov account DO match and they still do not see the form:

There was another error on the contributor’s StudentAid.gov account. The most common scenarios are the use of an ITIN number in the place of the SSN number, an incorrect date of birth, or multiple accounts created for the same individual. If there is an error, your contributor must invalidate their current account and create a new one.  

The Department has taken steps to invalidate any StudentAid.gov accounts that were created with an ITIN. These users can skip the steps below and proceed directly to creating a new account that does not use an ITIN.  

To invalidate the current account, the contributor must complete these steps:

1. Log in to StudentAid.gov and navigate to “Settings”
2. Find the Personal Information page and delete the last name entry.
3. Select “Apply Changes,” and then select “Yes” from the warning message about continuing with the blank last name. 
4. On the contact information page, update the information:
   1. Replace the email address with another valid email address. The same email cannot be used on the invalidated account and the newly created account.
   2. Uncheck “Yes, I would like to use my mobile phone for account recovery,” and delete the mobile phone number.
   3. Check the box to agree to terms and conditions, and then select “Apply Changes.”
   4. On the next screen, follow prompts to verify the new email address.
   5. Click “Continue to complete the changes.” 

After a contributor’s account is invalidated, they must create a new StudentAid.gov account with correct personal information.

• DO NOT enter an ITIN in place of an SSN. An ITIN is a tax processing number issued by the IRS that has 9 digits beginning with the number 9.
• DO NOT enter an incorrect date of birth and correct it after creating an account. 
• DO NOT use the same email address as the invalidated account.

If the contributor has a foreign mailing address, there are some additional steps, which can be reviewed here. Once the new account is created, they can log-in with their new username and password. If they are completing the manual identity validation process, they will still have access to your FAFSA form while they complete it.

Once a contributor’s account is invalidated, it cannot be associated with any FAFSA form, and may be deleted.

Applicants and contributors still experiencing issues with contributor accounts can contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center for additional assistance.