The forms for students who wish to apply for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the upcoming year, 2025-26, are now available on the official government website of FAFSA. The students interested may now visit the official website and fill out their forms with accurate details in order to receive the aid. If you are planning to fill out the FAFSA form for the first time, this article brings you a step-by-step detailed guide on how to fill out the FAFSA form for interested students.
Step 1: StudentAid.gov Account
The very first step in the detailed guide on how to fill out the FAFSA form will be creating an account on StudentAid.gov. Anyone who will provide the information for the form will need an account on StudentAid.gov before they access or complete their part of the form. While creating your account, you must ensure that the Social Security number you are entering is accurate and matches the one on your card.
Step 2: Gather The Documents
The second step in the detailed guide on how to fill out the FAFSA form will be gathering all the documents that will be required while filling out the form. To fill out the FAFSA form successfully, you will need the SSN of your parents in case you are dependent or your SSN in case you are independent, the tax returns, the records of child support received, the balances of your accounts including the savings, cash, and checking current balances, as well as the net worth of investments, businesses, and farms.
Step 3: Starting To Fill The FAFSA Form
The third step in the detailed guide on how to fill out the FAFSA form will be to log in and start to fill out the form using your account username and password to access the form. In case you are going to apply for federal aid for the summer session, you will have to ask your college’s financial aid office in order to find out which school year you will have to select while you are filling out your FAFSA form.
The fourth in the detailed guide on how to fill out the FAFSA form will be listing out your colleges and schools. The listing of colleges and schools is an important step as it will be using your information to find out which type and amount of aid you will be receiving. The order for Federal Student Aid does not matter, but some states follow a definite pattern for listing schools and colleges for state student aid. Hence you must research properly about the rules before filling out the form.
Step 5: Specifying The Status Of Dependency
The fifth step in the detailed guide on how to fill out the FAFSA form will be specifying the status of dependency. In case you are dependent on your parents, guardian, or spouse, you must specify their details along with yours while you are filling out the form. However, if you are an independent student, you are only required to fill out your details in order to apply for federal student aid.
Step 6: Providing Parent’s Details
In case you are dependent on your parents your next step in filling out the FAFSA form will be to provide all the required details about your parents while you are filling out the form. You must ensure that the financial information you are providing about your parents is accurate as it will be used to determine the amount that you can receive as aid.
Step 7: Providing Spouse’s Details
In case you are married and dependent on your spouse, the next step for you in the detailed guide on how to fill out the FAFSA form will be providing the details of your spouse. In case you file taxes jointly with your spouse, they will not be considered as a contributor. However, if you are married but do not file income taxes jointly with your partner, they will be considered as a contributor in your form.
The eighth step in the detailed guide on how to fill out the FAFSA form will be reporting your financial information which may include tax forms as well as the current balances of checking and savings accounts. The form for the year 2025-26 will require tax information from the year 2023, while the form for the year 2024-24 will require tax information from the year 2022. In case your financial information changes significantly from that mentioned on your federal income tax return, you may have your aid adjusted.
Step 9: Transfer Of Tax Information
The ninth step in the detailed guide on how to fill out the FAFSA form will be the automatic transfer of your contributor’s tax information from the IRS to the form. All the contributors for your form will have to provide detailed approval to the US Department of Education which specifies that they can disclose their personally identifiable information from the FAFSA form to the IRS in order to match and verify the tax information, obtain the tax information from the IRS, use that information to determine the aids, share the information with schools and colleges, as well as reusing the information on other applicants forms. (For example Siblings)
Step 10: Submission of Form
The last step in the detailed guide on how to fill out the FAFSA form will be submitting the form. After all the contributors have provided their information and consents, you and your parents or spouse have signed the form, and you have agreed to all the terms and conditions, you can submit the form and see a page of confirmation along with your estimated amount of aid, pell grant eligibility, and all the information about any other aids you may be eligible for. You will also receive an email with confirmation for future references.
