<p>Hi,
My daughter has applied for the FAFSA and when she filled it out, she used the exact name as shown on her U.S. Passport, U.S. Birth Certificate, Ca. Driver's License and High School ID Card...she has of course her First Name, NO Middle Name and two Last Names separated by a SPACE...which is not uncommon at all and as far as DOE (FAFSA) is concerned, not a problem...</p>
<p>Ok...here's the problem that we discovered after she had submitted her filled in FAFSA application...when DOE went on-line to the SSA to verify identity...the Middle and Last Names did not match...we called SSA to find out that when she was issued her SS Card right after birth, some wizard in the SSA decided on their own that my daughter's 1st Last Name was her Middle Name and her 2nd Last Name was in fact her Last Name...</p>
<p>So obviously, the verification would not be successful...</p>
<p>So, over 5 calls to the DOE (FAFSA), my daughter was told by the Rep, to completely erase her Last Name, First Name, Middle Name (IF applicable), SSN and DOB and re-enter them as they should be...tried to tell them that the way they show up on the on-line FAFSA application and received SARs...WERE correct and that she would only be re-entering the EXACT SAME info...she was told...there is NO way that, that is possible...yes, it is...she told them...you get the idea...anyway...she followed their instructions and we noticed that the corrected fields did not show up on the new window after you click on SAVE. just prior to clicking on SUBMIT...so we were told by a Rep at Student Financial Aid Services. Inc. to try something...in the Street Address field, instead of writing out the full "Street"...to abbreviate it as "St", Save it and Submit it...</p>
<p>As soon as she click on Save...the Change shows up in the new window with the Item No., Previously Entered Info and New Corrected Info...which told us right there that the Names were not being taken as changed items because we were entering them exactly the same way on those 5 occasions...so after waiting another 3 days or so...on our 8th try...I had a brain storm...</p>
<p>I told my daughter to re-enter the "Street" in the Street Address field and in the Last Name field, use her 2nd Last Name and in the Middle Initial field use the first letter of her 1st Last Name...save it and submit it...BANG!!!...it wasn't even 5 minutes when my daughter gets an email saying that her FAFSA application had been successfully verified and within 3 days or so, the colleges/universities that you included in your FAFSA application will be able to access your info...</p>
<p>And sure enough...they were able to...and my daughter is also able to access the data at the colleges/universities systems on-line...even though, the colleges/universities have my daughter's name as First Name, No Middle Name and two Last Names...we are assuming that their system is linked by SSN only when FAFSA sends the data to them...</p>
<p>Now, right after the first failed attempt at FAFSA...my daughter went to the local SSA office, submitted a FS-5 (Change of Personal Data) to get the Middle Name that SSA mistakenly input into the SSA system, received a NEW SS Card listing her two Last Names on Line-2 of the Card and her First Name on Line-1...which according to the SSA, is recognized...REALLY???...SSA are probably the only ones that know that...</p>
<p>And my daughter called SSA on 3 occasions to verify that her names were corrected...and they were according to the SSA on their main system but was told that it may take 30-90 days before the changes show up on ALL of the servers...REALLY???...they need to find some new IT people if that is the case...no wonder Home Land Security has problems...sorry off topic...</p>
<p>Our question is;
We assume that at some point once the SSA server system gets itself all sorted out, my daughter would need to inform the colleges/universities what she has to do and to go back to the FAFSA system and correct her names to match the SSA's system...</p>
<p>Does anyone have an idea when she should do this so as not to rock the boat on here financial aid package, which seems to be in the colleges/universities systems? </p>
<p>Or does she even need to correct this?</p>
<p>Any help from any of you that have more dealings with FAFSA, would be highly appreciated.</p>
<p>All the best...</p>