Update on Sept. 5. 2025: As of Aug. 29, 2025, identity verification functionality has been added to the FAFSA Partner Portal (FPP). Financial aid administrators can now submit verification results directly through the FPP, following the guidance outlined below. For additional support, training is available on the Federal Student Aid Training Center (see “Identity Verification in FPP” under Systems Training).
Students requiring identity verification that were not included in the Aug. 29 launch of the functionality will now appear within FPP as of Sept. 4.
Update on Aug. 19. 2025: We have updated the language in the final paragraph above “contact information,” as follows: “…when FTI is received from the IRS via the FA-DDX, the FTI received is considered verified and no additional documentation is necessary. However, schools must still verify identity and any other income- and tax-related items (including family size, if updated by the applicant) not received directly from the IRS.”
This Electronic Announcement provides an update on the availability of verification of identity reporting in the FAFSA Partner Portal. Reporting functionality will be available in the FAFSA Partner Portal for the 2025–26 award year by Aug. 31, 2025. Reporting functionality for the 2026–27 award year will be available at the start of the processing cycle.
Please note that schools will not be required to report verification of identity in the FAFSA Partner Portal for the 2024–25 award year.
Whom To Report
Schools must report the results as described below for any student for whom they received an ISIR with a Verification Tracking Group of V4 or V5 and for whom they requested verification documentation. Schools should use this reporting function for students only when the FAFSA Processing System (FPS) has placed the student in Verification Tracking Group V4 or V5. It should not be used when the school itself has selected the student for verification of identity.
When To Report
Institutions would normally be required to report these verification outcomes within 60 days of requesting documentation from the student and within 30 days of becoming aware of any changes that need to be submitted. Because the Verification of Identity function is not available until Aug. 31, 2025, any V4 or V5 initial identity outcomes or changes must be made within 60 days or 30 days, respectively, of the normal timeframe requirement or when the FAFSA Partner Portal Verification of Identity function is made available, whichever is later.
How To Report
In the FAFSA Partner Portal, schools will see a list of applicants who were placed in Verification Tracking Group V4 or V5 by FPS and who also listed the institution’s school code on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form for the applicable award year. The list may be filtered by name or Social Security number and can be sorted alphabetically, in ascending or descending order. The list can also be filtered by applicants whose identity verification results have or have not been previously reported.
Results of identity verification can be submitted individually or in batches by uploading a .CSV file with the data for up to 2,000 students. Each row in the file must contain only one record and have the following elements, each in its own column:
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Applicant’s nine-digit Social Security number
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Last name
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Verification of identity result numeric code (described below)
Identity Verification Results Numeric Codes
Use one of the following numeric codes to report the results of identity verification for each student:
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1 – Verification completed in person; no issues found
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2 – Verification completed remotely; no issues found
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3 – Verification attempted; issues found with identity
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5 – No response from applicant or unable to locate
Institutions should use numeric code 1 for reporting identity verification completed in person by an institutionally authorized individual. Identity verification completed in any way other than in person by an institutionally authorized individual, including through NIST IAL2, in-person notary, video call, or by a correctional facility representative should use numeric code 2. Institutions should use numeric code 3 when they do not receive acceptable documentation.
Note: Numeric codes 4 and 6 are reserved by the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) for possible future use.
As announced in Electronic Announcement APP-25-16, the Department made several significant changes to the acceptable documentation for identity verification that must be maintained by schools when they perform V4 or V5 verification.
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Schools are no longer required to obtain a Statement of Educational Purpose from students who are selected under the V4 or V5 verification tracking group.
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Institutions now have additional options for completing identity verification remotely.
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The Department will consider a confined or incarcerated student’s identity to be verified if the student’s identity was verified by a responsible official at the facility where the individual is confined or incarcerated.
Note: Institutions are not required to reverify a confined or incarcerated student’s identity as long as they remain enrolled in the same postsecondary institution at the same correctional facility and have had their identity previously verified under the V4 or V5 verification track group.
Please review the July 22, 2025 Federal Register Notice for additional information about acceptable documentation and methods for completing identity verification.
As also announced in Electronic Announcement APP-25-16, the Department has continued to improve fraud screening for the 2025–26 FAFSA cycle. For the fall 2025 semester, schools will continue to have elevated identity verification rates. Approximately 300,000 applications will be flagged for V5 verification in the coming days. With FSA’s fraud screening enhancements, all 300,000 of these applications have shown a pattern that makes them likely candidates for fraud. The Department appreciates schools’ support in this work, including reporting results of verification into FPP, which will improve the Department’s fraud model.
As a reminder, when FTI is received from the IRS via the FA-DDX, the FTI received is considered verified and no additional documentation is necessary. However, schools must still verify identity and any other income- and tax-related items (including family size, if updated by the applicant) not received directly from the IRS.
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, IHE, topic, and question. When selecting a topic, please select “Policy Guidance.”