Just want to know just in case.
In our experience, it took several hours - I would say at least 6+ over a 2 week time period. Generally speaking, the more complex your tax situation is, the longer it is going to take to fill it out. Meaning, if your parents are self employed, own a rental property, have multiple streams of income, etc, it’s going to take longer to fill out. If your parents have not already looked at the PDF on SSS’s website that shows what information is needed in each section, they may want to take a look so they know what kind of information they will need to dig up.
Then, in addition to alllll that other information, some schools (not all) will require a monthly budget. The monthly budget includes some costs already listed on the PFS (like mortgage, car payment, medical bills, educational expenses, cost of club sports, etc, and wants you to break them down into their monthly cost to you.) But then it also asks you for very fine details - like monthly grocery bills, money spent on dining out, entertainment (movies, sporting events, concerts), fuel for your car, amount spent on clothing, electric bills, TV / internet expenses, and probably a couple others I have forgotten about. Going back through my records for the year and adding up all those types of expenses was tedious and time consuming.
Once you’ve done all that, you need to go back over the PFS with a fine-tooth comb to be sure that you have all the right numbers in all the right places. If you have a decimal point in the wrong column, or an extra “0” somewhere, it can really throw off your EFC in the end. Take away message here: if you are going to apply, don’t wait until the last minute to start filling it out!
We have a pretty basic application and it took us about 4 hours + finding all the documentation they needed. I would recommend you get started sooner rather than later.
For the PFS, it took us around an hour to complete, and maybe an hour to scan and send the documentation.