I submitted my FAFSA a couple of days ago (almost a week now) and I got a confirmation email and everything; however, right afterwards, they send me an email saying my pin didn’t go through? So I fixed that, using the same pin and signed up again, and when I go back to the application there’s still an incomplete page?
I’m not quite sure what happened and why this happened (I for sure saved everything after completing every single page), so this is extremely frustrating. Did my FAFSA go through or not?
Doesn’t sound like it went through. You get an email 2 or 3 days after submitting saying it has been process when it’s successful. If you log in to your fafsa now it should say processed successfully if it was.
Did you and your parent use the same SSN when applying for the PIN and on the fafsa? How did you fix the pin using the same pin and what do you mean you signed up again? Which page of what is incomplete?
So I fixed that, using the same pin and signed up again, and when I go back to the application there’s still an incomplete page?
Not sure what you mean. What did you fix? If your PIN was not good, you wouldn’t solve anything by using the same PIN. I would suggest starting over … go to www.pin.ed.gov. First, try to Request a Duplicate PIN. If it works, you’ll be presented with an option to Display Now (click it & you will see your PIN). In this case, it means your PIN is good. Go into your FAFSA - you’ll be able to see if it’s been processed. If not, sign it with both your PIN and a parent PIN. Then submit.
If it says you don’t have a valid PIN, then click Appy for a PIN. Start over & get a new PIN. Wait until you have an email confirmation telling you that your PIN is accepted. THEN go into your FAFSA and sign with the new PIN - you’ll need a parent to sign with a PIN again, too.
“Your 2015-2016 FAFSA was successfully submitted to Federal Student Aid.” Directly from the email, and then I got an email the same day saying “Your request for a Federal Student Aid PIN cannot be processed because the Social Security Number (SSN), name, or date of birth that you provided on your PIN application does not match your information on file at the Social Security Administration (SSA).”
So, I redid my PIN (and it’s pending at the moment – which is strange because I know for sure I typed in all the correct information), and now when I log back into my FAFSA account, a whole page is left blank.
It wouldn’t be an issue if my ad was here to help fill it out again, but he is on a prolonged overseas trip for business and won’t be back for awhile. Do I just have to fill it in and submit it again?
THis may sound silly, but since there is an other thread on the topic, is your ssn and DOB correct? Have you had a name change or something happen where you would have had to inform SSA and did not?
Ahhh … I am pretty sure the original email about successfully submitting simply means you submitted it. Everything still had to be screened - I bet you submitted while your PIN was still processing. The PIN always takes a couple days to process, so it will be pending until it passes the SSN screening. If your PIN had not been pending at the time, you would not have been able to sign the FAFSA - you would have gotten a prompt telling you that your PIN is no good. Because of timing, you did not get the prompt (the processor didn’t know yet that the PIN was no good). Both the PIN and FAFSA use the same database to check for SSN.
The bottom line is, you need to wait for this new PIN to complete processing. If it, too, rejects, you need to figure out what you are doing wrong. If it is good, you can sign into your FAFSA, complete it, sign it (you & parent) and submit it. DO NOT submit again until you know you have a good PIN.
Oh, alright, I understand now. So the pin has to go through – so since I got the confirmation email, does it mean it went to the schools I put it too? Or do I need to do it again?
Also, how long does confirming the PIN take – I have until early to mid February to get all my FAFSA details in to all my schools.
Confirming the PIN only takes a couple days. The schools don’t get the PIN - only you get it. You will use it to sign your FAFSA, then you will submit the FAFSA … that is what gets it to the schools. Once you get the confirmation email about your PIN, let us know if it was approved.
@kelsmom Thank you very much for all your help! I’ll be sure to reply back here if there’s been any other issues (or if everything works out in the end). I appreciate the quick replies and for the thorough explanation.
I ran into a similar problem with my daughter’s FAFSA - turns out I had transposed 2 digits of her SSN when I started the FAFSA (and kept doing it everytime I logged into the FAFSA). when she submitted it - it “went through” but got the message about mismatch between PIN info and FAFSA info that was referenced above. It took a call to the SSA (not useful) and a call to FAFSA help (very helpful) to figure it out. I had to re-do the FAFSA (using the correct SSN) and resubmit. Very frustrating - but all is well now. A call to FAFAS help desk may be in order.