All students and contributors must create a StudentAid.gov account to complete the FAFSA form online. Students and contributors will use their FSA ID account username and password to log in to their accounts. Even if a parent or spouse contributor doesn’t have a Social Security number, they can still get an FSA ID using their ITIN to fill out their portion of the student’s FAFSA form online.

The FSA ID process is not changing. Parents and students can create the FSA ID and have it ready any time before the FAFSA application starts.

To create a FSA ID, you’ll need your Social Security number (SSN). Other information required is full name and date of birth. You’ll also need to create a memorable username and password and complete challenge questions and answers to retrieve your account information if you forget it. You’ll be required to provide your email address or mobile phone number when you make your FSA ID. Providing a mobile phone number and/or email address that you have access to will make it easier to log in to ED online systems and allow you to verify your FSA ID before using it on the FAFSA and additional account recovery options. This Federal Student Aid (FSA) video can help create a step-by-step FSA ID.

Parents or spouses will be able to create a StudentAid.gov account without having an SSN to access their portion of your FAFSA form. On the 2024–25 FAFSA form, if the parent or spouse is completing their own section and doesn’t have an SSN, the SSN will be blank and disabled. If the parent or spouse has an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), they should add it to the FAFSA form. If they don’t have an ITIN, they should leave that question blank.

Note: The StudentAid.gov account your parent creates for the 2024–25 FAFSA form can’t be used for the 2023–24 FAFSA form.

Your parents’ citizenship status doesn’t affect your eligibility for federal aid. In fact, the FAFSA form doesn’t even ask about your parent’s or spouse’s citizenship status.  They (your parents) must create a FSA ID even if they’re not U.S. citizens. For FAFSA purposes, you must provide your parents’ income, no matter where they reside.

If the parent you indicate on the FAFSA is the parent who remarried, it’ll depend on how they filed taxes. If they filed jointly, only one parent needs an FSA ID. If they filed separately, both parents would need their own FSA ID.

No. You can use your existing FSA ID. You can retrieve your existing FSA ID if you forgot your username and password.

Two-step verification, a form of multi-factor authentication (MFA), helps protect your StudentAid.gov account with additional protection from fraud.

Yes, this is very important. For example, a student and parent cannot use the same phone number and email for MFA.

This depends on the family’s situation. For example, if a student has married parents filing taxes separately, both parents will need to make an FSA ID.

Just ensure they are verified and ready to use when the FAFSA 2024–25 opens sometime in December 2023.

Starting with the 2024–25 FAFSA, a separate signature page will no longer exist. There are two alternative options for contributors to provide consent who do not want to or refuse to create an FSA ID:

• The first example would be the student applying using the paper FAFSA and obtaining physical signatures from all contributors, including the parents, who also affirm their consent.
• The other option is for the student to complete their section and self-report information for the parent section on the FAFSA form. When the student submits their FAFSA form without the parent’s signature, it will be placed in rejected status by the FAFSA Processing System (FPS). The parent can then provide their signature and consent on a paper copy of the FAFSA Submission Summary. This method is not recommended due to complexity and increased processing time.