E-App and Third-Party Servicer Issue Alerts

Stakeholders should bookmark this page to follow issues related to the Application for Approval to Participate in the Federal Student Financial Assistance Programs (E-App) and Third-Party Servicer Inquiry Form that we identify and resolve.

Go to the Resolved Issues section of this page.

Open Issues

   

Status: Manual Intervention Required

Description: If a user receives a 404 error when clicking on the link in the “Welcome to Partner Connect” Access Form, the user should contact the FSA Partner and School Relations Center for assistance. This issue is likely tied to a mismatch in the user’s organization’s name across FSA systems and requires manual intervention to update it.

Workaround/Impact: There is no workaround; manual intervention is required.

Status: Manual Intervention Required

Description: We have determined that some users may not be able to access the E-App or TPS Inquiry Form because they have a duplicate user account on FSA Partner Connect. The duplication is likely a result of a mismatch on a user’s name (first or last), SSN, or email address (e.g., Dave vs. David, or @school.net vs. @school.edu) for the account information on FSA Partner Connect and the account information previously used for other FSA systems. These cases require manual intervention because the impacted users must validate their information. Users must contact the FSA Partner and School Relations Center and provide the following information:

  • Legal First Name

  • Legal Last Name

  • FSA User ID

  • DOB

  • Last four of SSN

  • Email

  • Organization/OPE ID

Once the user is validated, we will merge/update the account information on FSA Partner Connect.

Note: A Primary or Secondary Administrator can identify users that may be impacted by this issue by reviewing user accounts on the Account Access Management Center – “Manage Organization Accounts” tab. If a user appears twice, they have a duplicate account and should contact the FSA Partner and School Relations Center to report the duplicated information and have the account corrected.

Workaround/Impact: There is no workaround; manual intervention is required.

Status: Open

Description: When TPS administrators are adding or making changes to a TPS user’s access (e.g., adding Case (Edit) access for eligibility and oversight work) for an associated school, the TPS administrators are seeing schools listed twice in the “Select School to View” screen. To ensure the TPS user’s access is updated correctly, the TPS administrator must choose the school that has the additional eligibility and oversight access options available. To do this, administrators will navigate to the “My Account” tab and check to see the “Case Management – Eligibility and Oversight” block is at the bottom of the page. If not, administrators need to return to the school list and select the other school account.

Workaround/Impact: Currently, there is no workaround; however, FSA is working on a fix to identify the correct school entry with the eligibility and oversight features more easily. In the meantime, TPS administrators must select each school entry and use the one where eligibility and oversight access options are available.

 

Resolved Issues

   

Status: Resolved

Previous Description: We have determined an issue with the user access form for FSA Partner Connect. Specifically, when an administrator initiates system access for a user, that user receives an email with a link to user access form. Users are receiving the access form link, but once they open it, the fields are greyed out and cannot be edited. As a result, new users cannot complete or submit the form. We are working on a fix for this issue, and plan to implement it as soon as possible. Until the fix is in place, users will not be able to access FSA Partner Connect.

Previous Workaround/Impact: There is no workaround; Federal Student Aid will perform outreach to impacted users once the access form issue is resolved.

Resolution: User access form links are being sent and users can open, complete, and submit the form.

Status: Resolved

Previous Description: We have identified an issue in which Primary and Secondary Administrators are unable to grant or remove access to users in a “Potential Affiliate” status from the “Action Required” tab if the organization name listed in the “header” of the page (next to the “Profile” icon) is not the same as the organization associated with the individual user.

Previous Workaround: We have identified a fix for this issue and are working to implement it as soon as possible. In the meantime, Primary (or Secondary) Administrators can grant or remove access by selecting the user through the “Manage Organization Accounts” tab or ensuring that the organization name in the header aligns with the organization associated with the user.

Resolution: A fix was implemented. Administrators can grant or remove access to “Potential Affiliates” through the “Action Required” or “Manage Organization Accounts” tab.

Status: Resolved

Previous Description: We have identified an issue in which Third-Party Servicer (TPS) Primary and Secondary Administrators are receiving an error when restoring access to deactivated users.

Previous Workaround: We have implemented a temporary workaround by reactivating TPS users to the last known status prior to deactivation. TPS administrators can now validate their list of users and grant the appropriate access at the school level. We have identified a permanent fix to allow administrators to manage access for deactivated users and are working to implement it as soon as possible.

Resolution: We implemented a fix which allows TPS administrators to manage access for deactivated users.

It is important to note that this access is the first step to be able to complete eligibility and oversight work in the system. Third-Party Servicer (TPS) users (non-admins) will also need to make sure at least two other connections are made:

  1. TPS users must have an Eligibility & Oversight (E&O) role added to their profile. This role is separate from their role and responsibilities in FSA Partner Connect itself. This role is granted to users by the TPS organization’s E&O Administrator (who may be different than the TPS Primary Administrator at your organization). See also a Nov. 17, 2023 Electronic Announcement.

  2. TPS users must be granted “access” to each school for which those users provide services or assistance. This allows the TPS organization to create the connection between a particular school and a specific TPS user. Once the TPS administrator has granted access for a school, the TPS user will receive an email to sign in and review, acknowledge, and sign to confirm the new access. Once those actions are completed, the user will be set up to perform work for that school. Note: Because access will be at the school level, a TPS user who works with more than one school will receive separate emails for each school connection.

If you are a TPS Primary or Secondary Administrator, you will be able to review the FSA Partner Connect access for your TPS users and begin to grant access to those TPS users to the associated schools. Generally, these TPS users will be in a “Potential Affiliate” status. Note: As mentioned above, some TPS users will need to be granted access multiples times. For example, a TPS users completes work for 20 different schools. The TPS administrator must update the “Potential Affiliate” status for that TPS user on each of the 20 schools.

Finally, independent of the TPS user access status described above, each client school will need to take an action in FSA Partner Connect to authorize the TPS organization the capability to complete eligibility and oversight work. This school-based action must occur even if the TPS organization has users established in FSA Partner Connect and the appropriate TPS E&O user roles are assigned to those users. Schools, specifically the E&O Admin or Alternate E&O Admin, will complete this action on the Account Access Management Center – Eligibility and Oversight tab in FSA Partner Connect.

Note: We are aware that once users have access to FSA Partner Connect and all necessary roles and school connections are in place, some TPS users may still receive a 401 error when trying to access the E-App on behalf of their schools. If this is the case, users should report the issue to the FSA Partner and School Relations Center so information can be collected to help identify the underlying cause of the error.

Go to the Open Issues section of this page.

Last Modified: 07/17/2024 • Published: 01/26/2024