What to gather before you apply

Use this guide to collect everything the FAFSA and most benefit applications ask for before you open a single form. With your accounts set up and your papers in one folder, the forms themselves go faster, and you are less likely to stop halfway and lose your place.

Set up the accounts first

Everyone who supplies information on the FAFSA needs their own StudentAid.gov account, the login that used to be called the FSA ID. That includes you and any contributor the form asks about, such as a parent or a spouse. Each person needs a separate email address and phone number for the account.

Create these accounts a few days before you plan to file. Each account is checked against Social Security records, and that match can take a little while to come through. A parent or spouse without a Social Security number can still create an account, though the identity check takes extra steps.

Identity and status documents

Keep your Social Security number at hand, along with a driver's license or state ID if you have one. If you are not a US citizen, have your immigration documents ready, including any Alien Registration Number. The FAFSA and many state benefit forms ask for these early, and a typo here can hold up everything after it.

Benefit applications often want proof that you are enrolled in school. Your registrar can usually provide an enrollment verification letter, and a current class schedule helps too. Keep a copy of your student ID with these papers.

Tax and income records

The FAFSA uses tax information from two years before the school year begins, so the year you file and the year it asks about are different. Find the federal tax returns, W-2 forms and any 1099 forms for that tax year, for yourself and for each contributor. Most of this transfers straight from the IRS once each person gives consent on the form.

That consent step carries real weight. Each contributor has to approve the transfer of their federal tax information, or the form cannot be processed for federal aid. If someone did not file a return, or filed outside the United States, the form asks for the figures by hand, so keep the records that show what they earned.

Benefit offices tend to look at more recent income. For SNAP, Medicaid or housing help, gather your last few pay stubs, a letter showing any work-study award, and records of other income such as child support.

Balances and household facts

The FAFSA asks for the current value of cash, savings, checking accounts and investments as of the day you sign. Write those balances down from your bank statements before you start. Retirement accounts and the home a family lives in are left off the form, so you can skip those numbers.

The form also asks about the people in your household and the schools that should receive your information. Make a short list of those schools, with each name spelled the way the school writes it. For benefit forms, add your lease or a rent receipt and recent utility bills, since many offices ask about housing costs.

The steps, in order

Work through these four in sequence. Each one sets up the next.

Create every account
Set up your own StudentAid.gov account and ask each contributor to make theirs, a few days before you plan to file.
Pull the tax year the form asks about
Find the returns, W-2s and 1099s from two years before the school year starts, for you and for each contributor.
Write down balances and household details
Note your account balances on the day you will sign, list your household members, and choose the schools that will see your form.
File and keep copies
Submit the form and save the confirmation. Keep the folder for benefit applications and for any verification request that follows.

Before you start

Your StudentAid.gov login and each contributor's
Social Security number or immigration documents
Tax returns, W-2s and 1099s for the right year
Current bank and investment balances
Proof of enrollment and recent pay stubs

Who decides

Your school's financial aid office, or the Federal Student Aid Information Center for questions about the form itself. Take your questions there: they make the decision, and asking costs nothing.