Fall is here, and that means it is also FAFSA time for college. This year’s FAFSA submission will again be available on October 1, 2025, for the 2026-2027 school year. Completing the FAFSA is a crucial step in the college funding process, and we believe that every student should complete it for several reasons.  The FAFSA submission generates your Student Aid Index (SAI), which is an key number in the financial aid process and packaging.  The colleges determine your financial need by subtracting the Cost of Attendance (COA) from your SAI. 

PayForED has a suite of comprehensive student loan solutions to help you plan your child’s educational future.  The first step is to understand how to complete the FAFSA.

Listed below are a series of steps to help you navigate the FAFSA submission.

FSA ID is Needed when Completing the FAFSA

The first step in completing the FAFSA is creating the FSA ID. This User ID and password are needed to sign various federal documents and provide access to select federal loan systems.  We have an entire article on creating your FSA ID, so our readers can understand the steps involved in creating their FSA ID. For dependent students, both the student and either one or both parents will need to create their own FSA ID depending, on various situations.

If you are an independent student, you only need an FSA ID. Here is a list of the most common independent types:

• Age – 24 or older
• Veteran
• Married
• Students with dependent children supporting themselves
• Have an undergraduate degree
• Some foster children and wards of the court
• Some emancipated minor
• Homeless or self-supported

Timing of Submitting the FAFSA

As stated above, the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is the form that generates the SAI.  Families need to complete the FAFSA to qualify for federal financial aid and many state aid programs. The FAFSA electronic form is available starting October 1, 2025, for the 2026-27 college school year.

Many families believe that the FAFSA should be completed as soon as possible. Over the past few years, several issues or bugs have occurred at the initial stages of the FAFSA submission process. Due to historical reasons, waiting a few days, may help avoid some system frustration, with little to no effect on your financial award.

Due to FAFSA Simplification, the FAFSA submission now has an automatic feed from the tax system. It would be best to estimate first, as the IRS data integrates directly into your FAFSA, and you will not be able to see the data imported. It is now a blind submission for personal identity security. For first-time FAFSA filers, you may want to get an estimation of your Student Aid Report (SAR) by using a financial aid calculator like the College Cost Analyzer.  As part of our newsletter list, we do issue alerts if we identify any significant issues with FAFSA or any other college funding topics.

Students and parents must submit a FAFSA annually. Additional financial information may be required from the colleges on your list. Specific colleges require additional financial aid information, such as the CSS Profile or their own supplement forms. For newly entering college students, getting the form in early is beneficial. For returning students, April is the recommended time frame, if not before, based on the college’s deadline.

An important note regarding your income and assets is that the income and taxes on the 2026-27 FAFSA are calculated based on the 2024 tax return.  If there is a significant change in your income, you should contact the schools and explain the change. This reporting difference is a crucial item to recognize and can be confusing.

Entering Your College List when completing the FAFSA

The FAFSA allows you to input twenty colleges at a time. If you have more than twenty colleges, you will need to go back and enter the remaining colleges. You will need to wait until the initial FAFSA submission has been processed. FAFSA Processing will generally take 1 – 3 days, depending on the time of year.

Once the original FAFSA is processed, the student can enter the remaining colleges.

Always check and put the correct campus location since some colleges have multiple locations. You want to make sure it goes to the correct college. On the other hand, some colleges have centralized the financial aid process, listing only one campus, and your college application must indicate the campus you are applying to.

Signing the FAFSA

For the FAFSA process, each student and either one or both dependent students’ parent will need an FSA ID before completing the FAFSA.  The student and the parent do not share an FSA ID. The FSA ID is needed to sign the FAFSA. It is your electronic signature. The independent student will only need their FSA ID to sign. You need to realize this is a legal document and should accurately reflect the information at the time of signature.

The FAFSA process may require both parents to have an FSA ID and password.  The most common situation occurs when parents are filing their taxes, married and separate.  The other conditions would be in divorced, separated, and never-married situations.

With the FAFSA submission, families will be required to opt-in to the IRS integration.  This process will directly import the students’ and parents’ tax information into the FAFSA from the IRS data.  If you do not opt-in, the FAFSA will not be submitted to the schools, and the student will not qualify for need-based financial aid.  Reviewing the Prior Prior tax information will help you understand who needs an FSA ID.  As stated above, for FAFSA 2026-27 the tax year used is 2024.

Divorce and Separated Parents

As you can see, the FAFSA process is highly dependent on the IRS system. If the parents of the filing student are divorced or separated, then the parent who is submitting the FAFSA should be the person who claims the child on their taxes. Many divorced and separated families overlook or do not adequately plan.

On another note, parents who are divorced or separated need to have separate mailing addresses for this to work. Living in the exact location will be considered a household, and both incomes will be included. If the submitting parent has remarried, the new household will be used, and the biological status will be overridden.

Summary

The FAFSA process needs to be completed each year if you want to qualify for federal financial aid or Direct Student Loans. With each submission, a Student Aid Report or SAR will be generated, confirming the changes. As stated above, I feel every family should complete the FAFSA.

As a resource in the financial aid process, PayForED offers a college planning tool called the College Cost Analyzer. This easy-to-use student loan software can help families generate their SAI calculation, calculate a four-year estimate of college expenses, and help families understand their debt structure.  A family student loan debt structure is becoming more critical as it will determine the borrower’s repayment and forgiveness options.