The 2027-28 FASFA will include a few minor changes when it is released in the fall.
At the recent Federal Student Aid (FSA) Conference that was held in Washington, D.C. on March 4-6, the Department of Education presented a session on “FAFSA Updates” to outline some of the upcoming changes to the 2027-28 FAFSA.
Some of these changes include:
Real-time Processing – By the summer of 2026, nearly all students who submit a FAFSA will be able to immediately:
- Know whether their application has been successfully processed.
- View their confirmed Student Aid Index (SAI) and Pell Grant eligibility.
- Begin a correction and see corresponding SAI changes.
FAFSA Partner Portal Improvements – Through the FAFSA Partner Portal, schools and other partners will have the ability to print FAFSA Submission Summaries, conduct an ISIR Comparison, request ISIRS by SSN, and view an updated application receipt time stamp in Central Time.
Identity Verification and Fraud Prevention – In the summer of 2025, the Department launched a nationwide effort to prevent fraud and identity theft and improve the integrity of the federal financial aid programs. This resulted in a $1 billion savings to federal taxpayers, with additional savings on state and institutional aid. As part of the fraud prevention, Phase 1 was implemented in June 2025 with all first time summer students selected for V5 verification. Phase 2 was introduced in August 2025 through targeted fraud screening of 2025-26 FAFSA applications, with suspicious forms flagged for V5 verification. Phase 3 will be introduced in the spring 2026 with real-time fraud detection implemented on the FAFSA form.
Renewal Application and Same Cycle Pre-Fill – This feature, which hasn’t been available in recent years, will make a comeback and make it easier for applicants to complete a renewal application in subsequent years and for parents to use the “pre-fill” feature to complete a FAFSA for another child.
2027-28 Beta testing timeline – The Department also announced their beta testing timeline which includes:
- April – Application to host Beta 1 events opens
- Early August – Beta 1 events begin
- September – Beta 2 online testing begins
- October 1 – 2027–28 FAFSA form launches to the public
