Beginning with the 2024-25 FAFSA, the Department of Education will require individuals – regardless of their citizenship status – to have an StudentAid.gov account to access and sign the FAFSA form. A recent electronic announcement outlines the steps required to create a StudentAid.gov account if the individual does not have a social security number.
Update on December 6, 2024: In a Dec. 6 electronic announcement GENERAL-24-140, the Department announced that it is pausing the acceptance of new identity documentation for individuals without a Social Security number (SSN) that must complete the manual identity validation process. Individuals who cannot have their identity validated through the automated systems that the Department currently uses through Transunion may immediately access the FAFSA form. No additional steps are required to validate their identity at this time. The Department anticipates implementing a longer-term solution for accepting and reviewing identity documents for the 2026-27 FAFSA cycle.
The Department continues to require certain actions by institutions and will take additional steps to ensure appropriate mitigation for potential fraud including identity and income verification, potential review of files for students who have reported they or a contributor does not have an SSN during program review, and referring cases of financial aid fraud to other agencies as appropriate.
POSTED DATE: December 22, 2023
AUTHOR: Federal Student Aid
ELECTRONIC ANNOUNCEMENT ID: GENERAL-23-123
SUBJECT: StudentAid.gov Account Creation for Individuals without a Social Security Number Beginning with the 2024-25 FAFSA Processing Cycle
Update on March 5, 2024: We updated steps 2 and 3 of the account creation instructions to reflect the new process that automatically assigns and provides case numbers by email to those individuals who fail the TransUnion® process.
Update on Dec. 27, 2023: We corrected the email address in the “StudentAid.gov Account Creation Instructions (step-by-step) for Individuals Without a Social Security Number (SSN)” section. The email address to which an individual is required to submit one or a combination of their acceptable documentation and a signed attestation form is IDVerification@ed.gov.
This electronic announcement outlines changes set to take effect beginning with the 2024-25 FAFSA cycle (late December), which will require individuals – regardless of their citizenship status – to have an StudentAid.gov account to access and sign the FAFSA form. This announcement describes the process for individuals without a social security number (SSN) to successfully create their StudentAid.gov account.
For several years, the Department of Education (Department) has partnered with the Social Security Administration (SSA) to verify individuals’ identity used in the StudentAid.gov account creation process. This partnership with SSA is the pr