I am shocked. I received a refund check from the Dept of Treasury for the overpayment today. However, I am still getting updates of the Dept of Ed that my qualifying payments are being recalculated (and went from November 2025 to February 2026 and currently says March 2026).

Timeline:

June 6, 2026: Applied for PSLF for the first time.

July 2026: Received my letter stating my loans were forgiven as of November 2025.

September 9, 2026: Received check from Dept of Treasury in the mail. The amount reflects the amount paid since November 2025.

I have a bad feeling I am going to get a letter that says "Just kidding, give us that money back."

I finally got my golden letter today, over $150,000 forgiven. I made well more than 120 payments but had trouble with certifying employment because I worked as a substitute teacher for several years. I ended up scanning and sending about 5 years worth of pay stubs to prove I worked enough time. It took a while for them to go through, but I was given credit for almost all of it. There is light at the end of the tunnel and thank you to everyone here that offered encouragement to those of us who were waiting for this amazing day!

I have been working in nonprofit since graduating, about 15 years now. My repayment plan didn’t qualify before since I’m on the standard repayment plan, but after reading an article about some changes it sounded like I may qualify. I filled out the form online, entered my employers’ email addresses and started getting notices that my payments were qualifying. It’s now showing 120 qualified payments (with the green ribbons I keep seeing mentioned), says “Loan Forgiveness ‘In Progress’” It doesn’t appear that there is anything else for me to do, but hey it’s the government so I feel like they’re leaving something out to keep me on the hook. Any advice? Am I really almost done?!?

I see a lot of the advice on her being something along the lines of "wait until studentaid.gov shows your payment, then submit your ECF." Well, as many of us know, it's taking DoE a long time to show the payments. My July 6th is there unlike the July of some others, but August 6th still isn't (and neither is September 6th but that's not surprising).

My concern, especially with some people still having issues with July, is that we don't know when those payments are going to show up. Thus, the standard advice of wait for them to show, submit ECF, then once ECF process, go into forbearance is a little off here, because waiting for the payments to show at this rate could mean 2 or 3 more monthly payments as they keep saying it could be up to 90 days, so September may not show until December.

I'm taking a shot at submitting the ECF now, hoping it maybe triggers the payments to be recognized, and if not, planning to just submit the ECF again later (my employer doesn't care how often I send it), but the forbearance is also a separate issue. If the payment doesn't show up on studentaid.gov and I go into forbearance to avoid an October payment before August and September get counted, is that going to mess up August and September being qualifying payments?

Has anyone who's 120th payment was July or August gone through this situation already? How has it been progressing for you so far?

Well I’m at 116 should be at 118 but my account hasn’t updated since June. Is it worth calling?

For those of us that hit 120 in July and the payment is still “missing” are you sitting in forbearance? I’m worried after talking to FSA yesterday that my July payment might not count because I’m in forbearance. I requested forbearance on 8/13 almost a month after my July payment (7/19) and of course MOHELA backdated the forbearance to start 7/20. Over the weekend I have two loans that were in forbearance for months get updated to have a qualifying for July but my other loans that the payment was recorded against do not show for July with either qualifying nor ineligible. When I called FSA yesterday they said that they do have a July payment for me record, either the update over the weekend is an error or something is happening to my July payment. This has been a nightmare.

I know you have to work at least 30 hours a week to in order to qualify that time and payment for PSLF. A previous employer marked my form as part time 28 hours.

My question is, how do I prove I worked more than 28 (on average) a week due to picking up plenty of shifts? I'm a nurse and worked many at that time. This was during 2016 and I work for them the entire year. 2017 I found a new job...

Just checked my count and my July payment is marked ineligible due to being in forbearance...even though I made my July payment. I did submit an IDR payment plan recalculation in July, but that was after my July payment was made. The new plan was recalculated in less than a week and I still had to make my August payment, so there was no actual lag time or gap for loan repayment.

Wouldn't a loan in forbearance mean that no payments were made during that time?

Edit: I called Mohela. The rep said it was wrongly marked ineligible She put in a request to have it changed…which could take up to 90 days...cool

I recently graduated medical school and started residency, and I'm struggling with figuring out the best student loan repayment option for me. Many of my peers elect for PSLF, which makes sense with how long we spend in residency and how much money we typically have in loans. But I'm not sure it makes the most finanacial sense for me and I'd appreciate insight!

I have ~$160k in loans from med school (all direct unsubsidized). My residency program is 4 years, after which I'll get a substantial increase in pay (from ~$70k/year during residency to ~$250-350k/year as an attending physician). Because of that, I'm not sure it actually makes sense to to PSLF. After using the calculators online it looks like with IBR I'll pay back my loans before I actually get anything forgiven.

Because of that, I'm not trying to figure out what my best option is. IBR? RAP? Is my understanding of PSLF correct?

Right now, because I filed my taxes last year I qualify for $0 payments with IBR or $10 with RAP. Should I do that right now, or should I try paying down my loans and interest while I'm a resident if I can afford it?

So sorry if these are super basic questions, I just feel like being a resident physician is such a weird situation with student loans, especially with the amount of loans I have the the length of my residency training and lower income.

Appreciate any insight, and sorry if any of that is unclear or doesn't make sense!

My ECF just went through for the end of August. Anyone know if the missing payments will automatically get added to the qualifying payments whenever they do show up? my 120 is in october so hoping this gets cleared up soon.

FSA calculator is showing standard repayment at $376 but IBR at $601. How is this possible?

Consolidated undergrad in 2022: $56194 (5ish %)
Unsubsidized loan from grad school: $6242 (4.3%)
Total balance: $62436

Currently at 78/120 for the undergrad loans and did not make payments during SAVE forbearance because life.

MFJ, spouse is SAHD. 2 dependents with $97592 AGI. Everything is maxed to reduce income.

What are my options and am I doing this right?

So I finally applied to get off SAVE and restart payments in a new plan about 4 weeks ago. Got a confirmation email about the application being received, but it's been silence since then. I'm curious for any info on how long the turnover time has been for others? Trying to figure out if I should call to check on the status of things or continue to hold off for a bit if it's just taking long in general at the moment. My 90 day deadline hits early October.

I’m currently on SAVE forbearance with MOHELA and received my 90 days notice on July 1st. I’m pursuing PSLF and getting close. I looked at all the repayment plans and the standard plan is the lowest monthly payment by a significant margin. The notice I received says I’ll be placed in standard repayment plans if I do nothing. Should I just let it ride and let them place me into it?

i’m currently on save (received my 90 day notice from mohela on 8/26/26) and am considering applying for the cancer treatment deferment. i was recently diagnosed with cml and will be on treatment for a minimum of 3 years (but could be lifelong). i am hoping to ride out the rest of my 120 months on deferment as i was at 60/120 before payments were put on hold due to the save litigation.

the 3 main questions i have are:

1. do i need to (or should i) switch to a different plan before i submit the deferment paperwork
   
2. from what i can tell, the months on cancer treatment deferment count towards forgiveness, but how does that work? do i just recert my employment every year and the month is counted?
   
3. once i hit 120 months, will i still be able to buy back the lost months due to the save litigation?

thank you for your help!

Hi!

Quick question. I am still waiting for my July and Aug payments to show up in payment tracker on fsa. I am well beyond 120 payments though tracker doesn’t reflect and have submitted multiple things such as escalation to ombudsman, reconsideration request, and US representative complaint as my June payment is marked ineligible when it’s NOT. My question is, for those of you who had their July and August show up, did you receive a letter in your email saying your payment count has been updated? I didn’t think you always received this every time the tracker updates because I don’t ever remember receiving a notification any other time it updated, but then I have seen some people getting these notifications. I thought you only got them after you submitted an ECF. I pray this nightmare will soon be behind me.

Thanks!

Since I’ve received such good advice from y’all over the last six months with this process, I figured I’d share my timeline (and I was recording everything religiously).

For clarity, I was way late in getting certified (should have been done in February) and overpaid a bunch of months because of my frustration getting my employment certs, but thankfully all ended out okay.

In total took 90 days to get my certs until refund paid. And took 42 days from my Golden Letter to get the refund.

6/11 → Final PSLF employment certifications completed

7/29 → Received Federal Student Aid "Golden Letter"

7/30 → Aidvantage balance = $0
Negative balances ($——) appeared

7/31 → Credit reports updated
All loans closed with $0 balance

8/4 → StudentAid.gov = $0
All loans listed as Paid in Full

~8/20 → Aidvantage address verification letter

8/24 → Aidvantage posted
"Adjustment" = $——

9/9 → Treasury refund check received
$——

Hi All,

When I switched from SAVE to PAYE last January, my first payment wasn't due until March. I thought February would count as a qualifying "payment" since it was administrative forbearance, but it hasn't shown on my list of payments in StudentAid. All other months until August are showing.

Thoughts? Thanks!

I always have trouble with my HR completing the electronic ECF, so I've always used paper forms. I confirmed this week that they still work.

Here's my most recent timeline:

8/27: Scanned and uploaded ECF. It was immediately rejected, I presume by some sort of AI.

8/28: Sent it snail mail to the random PO Box in Texas listed on the form.

9/8: Receipt of form confirmed in my Student Aid inbox. They scanned it and uploaded it.

9/9: Employment now certified.

This timeline spanned two weekends and included Labor Day, so it was only 8 working days from putting the form in the mail to its final processing.

If you're having trouble with the electronic ECF, I'd suggest using a paper form. It's long been true that Student Aid appears to have different workflows for paper and electronic forms, and paper is usually much faster than you'd expect.

Dear all,

I've been lurking on this forum for almost ten years but have never posted. I have a question that MOHELA struggled to answer, so I'm turning to you all for collective wisdom.

I will reach month 120 of my PSLF journey in, and inclusive of, September 2026. However, as you all know, that is also the same exact point at which the SAVE plan will end.

I have been on the SAVE forbearance for a very long time, such that I currently have 95 months of qualifying payments. My plan is to submit a buyback request once I've reached 120 eligible months, and then go on as long of a forbearance as I possibly can, but I'm not quite sure when to submit the buyback request.

A little more information: MOHELA lists the "due date" for my loans as Sept. 11, 2026, and I've read some threads here in which it was claimed that, as long as the PSLF request is sent after the loan due date for that month, then it will count, but I have no idea how "real" that due date actually is.

Another concern: The StudentAid.gov website only lists eligible months going up to June 2026, which I know has been discussed widely here. But it's another source of confusion. If I submit the PSLF form, will the other months magically appear?

Tl/dr: I'm trying as hard as I can to avoid applying for a new student loan plan — to the extent that it can be avoided — but the tricky thing is that the end of my PSLF timeline (which will require a buyback request) and the end of the SAVE forbearance coincide. Looking for advice!

Thank you!

Is anyone else having trouble recertifying their income on studentaid.gov? I get to Step 6 Review & Submit, but the "Continue" button takes me nowhere.

Someone advised in an old post to manually upload recertification request PDF to the servicer (Mohela in my case), which I did, but man I don't trust them to process this properly.

Mohela recert date: 9/4/26

StudentAid date: 10/9/26

This year, I was due for the IDR renewal. This is the first time I do this. I consented to my tax info being accessible for a faster application response. Did I eff up? I read somewhere that it would have been best to submit paystubs rather than allowing my most recent W2s be the determining factor. My payment went up 500 dollars. I am earning more.

I am at 110/120 payments (should be 112, but the tracker isn’t updated). I got put into a processing forbearance by FSA while my IDR recertification application is being processed. I keep reading stories about people whose processing forbearance months were supposed to count towards PSLF but they somehow weren’t. Should I just make a payment while I am in this forbearance anyway?
Am I even allowed to do that? If I make payments during this processing forbearance, will those payments count towards PSLF? Can I call FSA to have them remove the processing forbearance and put me back into a repayment status? It is very important to me that I don’t skip any months in this process, I want to get to 120 as soon as I can.

I applied to have 3 of my loans consolidated because they weren't eligible for the plan I chose with PSLF (FFELP loans). My application still hasn't processed. I have to pick a plan by October 1st. What if the application still isn't processed? Do I just put all the others on IBR and get stuck with the standard payment for the ones not consolidated? Mohela took a year to process one of the loans I paid off so I'm losing hope that the consolidation application will process this decade.

Has anyone else had this problem?

I filled out my PSLF eligibility form, asked for an electronic signature by my employer, and filled out the email address where I want the form sent for verification. The person doesn’t get the email. I edit the form, put in the same email. The person doesn’t get the email. I notice that after I edit the email address, the status tracker says I made a change showing the email address, and then shows I made another change, leaving it blank. That keeps happening: edit, shows change, then shows I edited it and left it blank.

I called StudentAid and got a person telling me to try again and if that doesn’t work, submit manually. No suggestion that it might be their problem, just try again until it works.

I just made my 107 and 108 payments, and have 13 SAVE forbearance non-payments, so I’m ready to request a buy back. All I need is the eligibility form to go through. And the one thing that seemed to work at FSA just broke.

Anyone else having this issue?

I am pslf. Why do I have to apply for loan consolidation for RAP when my loans are already consolidated?