This Electronic Announcement includes information about the rollout of new paper FAFSA® form-related functionality for the 2025–26 cycle and the resolution of several issues with paper forms for the 2024–25 cycle.
On Nov. 21, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) officially released the 2025–26 FAFSA form. In the announcement, we indicated that paper forms would be processed starting in early December. On Nov. 24, the Department deployed the functionality for processing paper applications for the 2025–26 FAFSA cycle and has begun processing applications. Institutional corrections for paper FAFSA forms for the 2025–26 FAFSA cycle are available via the FAFSA Partner Portal, and student corrections for paper forms will be available in early 2025.
The Department previously encountered an error while processing 2024–25 paper FAFSA applications. This error resulted in incorrectly rejected ISIRs with reject code 9 and comment code 023, which instructs the applicant to provide missing student personal information, although all required personal information was already provided. On Nov. 24, the Department deployed a fix for this bug. We began reprocessing impacted records this week and will send reprocessed Institutional Student Information Record (ISIRs) to schools (Reprocessing 13).
While processing some 2024–25 FAFSA paper applications, we encountered applicants who already have a StudentAid.gov account and whose information on their FAFSA paper form did not match their existing StudentAid.gov information. This issue also impacts required contributors who have an existing StudentAid.gov account. As a reminder, the data on the FAFSA paper application must be an exact match to an existing StudentAid.gov account, including spacing, punctuation, and abbreviations. We have identified impacted applicants and are returning the applicable portion of their applications to them (whichever of pages 7, 13, 15, and 18 are relevant to the applicant) along with instructions for affirming or correcting the information.
Applicants and contributors with internet access will be encouraged to review and, if needed, correct their name, address, and date of birth online at StudentAid.gov. They may also submit a new application online if they do not need to retain the original submission date on their FAFSA paper form to maintain eligibility for federal, state, or institutional aid. If the applicant needs to maintain their original submission date, if the information on the returned partial copy of the FAFSA form is correct, or if the applicant does not have access to the internet, the applicant will be instructed to call 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243) and mention code 800-001 to resolve the issue.
Incarcerated applicants will receive a separate communication with an alternate resolution because they may have limited ability to make phone calls and may not have access to the internet. Additionally, school partners who participate in the Second Chance Pell Experiment or have a Prison Education Program will receive an email with further instructions for helping their students resolve the issue.
Any questions about this announcement should be sent through the Contact Customer Support form link in Federal Student Aid’s Help Center. When submitting a question, please enter your name, email address, institution of higher education, topic, and question.