FAFSA Step by Step: Completing the 2026-27 Application

Before you start

The FAFSA for the 2026-27 school year covers the award year running from July 2026 through June 2027. It opened on September 24, 2025 and stays open through June 30, 2027. Your school and state may set earlier deadlines for their own aid, so check with your financial aid office instead of waiting for the federal cutoff.

Set aside about an hour. If you are a dependent student, at least one parent completes their own section of the form.

If you are married, your spouse does the same. The FAFSA calls anyone besides you who has to provide financial information a contributor.

Step 1: Create your FSA ID

Go to studentaid.gov and create an FSA ID with your email address, phone number, and Social Security number. Every contributor creates a separate FSA ID with their own email address, never yours. Do this before the day you plan to submit, since identity verification with the Social Security Administration can take a day or more.

Step 2: Gather your documents

Collect these before you log in:

• Your Social Security number and your parents' or spouse's, if they are contributors

• Federal tax return details for you and your contributors, or consent to pull them automatically

• Records of untaxed income, current bank balances, and investments

• A list of the colleges you want to receive your results, by school code

Most filers no longer type in tax figures by hand. The form uses the IRS Direct Data Exchange to pull them in once you and your contributors give consent.

Step 3: Start your application and add your contributors

Log in and answer the personal information and dependency questions first. Your answers determine who else needs to contribute, typically a biological or adoptive parent for dependent students, or a spouse for married applicants.

Enter each contributor's name, date of birth, and Social Security number exactly as it appears on their own records, since a mismatch blocks the process. The form emails each contributor an invitation once you add them, and nothing submits until every contributor finishes their part.

Step 4: Complete your own section

Work through school selection, demographic questions, and your own financial information. Give consent for the IRS Direct Data Exchange so your tax data transfers automatically where you qualify. Answer every required question, since a single skipped question holds up the whole application.

Step 5: Contributors complete their sections

Each contributor logs in with their own FSA ID, answers their financial questions, and gives consent for their tax data to transfer. If a contributor does not have a Social Security number, they can still create an FSA ID and complete their section through an alternate identity verification process.

Step 6: Review, sign, and submit

Once every contributor finishes, review the full form for errors before you sign electronically. Every contributor also signs their own section. The form will not submit until all required signatures are in.

What happens after you submit

You get a FAFSA Submission Summary within a few days, showing your Student Aid Index and the schools you listed. Each school uses that number, along with its own cost of attendance, to build your aid offer. Check your studentaid.gov account and your email for updates, and contact a school's financial aid office directly if that school does not show your FAFSA data.

Fixing mistakes after you submit

Log back into your account to correct an answer or add a school after you submit. Corrections go through the same contributor sign-off process, so any contributor whose section changed needs to sign again. This resends an updated Submission Summary and can change your Student Aid Index.

Deadlines

The federal deadline for the 2026-27 FAFSA is June 30, 2027 .

States and individual schools often close their own aid consideration months earlier, so filing soon after the form opens gives you access to the most funding, including limited campus-based aid that runs out as the year goes on.