The college financial aid application used by millions of American families is now officially open for the 2025-2026 school year – 10 days ahead of schedule.

Top Education Department officials said on a call with reporters Thursday that they are “confident” in this year’s FAFSA form, after the botched rollout of a new form last year led to delays and problems for students seeking financial aid.

What do I need to know about applying for financial support?

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form is the primary gateway for students and their families to qualify for financial aid through the federal government. It helps determine access to college and university aid packages, Pell grants and other loans.

The FAFSA form is now available here.

The first step is for students and their parents to create an FSA ID. It may take several days for it to be approved. Completing the application itself would then take about 15 minutes, Department of Education officials estimated to ABC News. Although last year, officials were overly optimistic about the timeline for completing the form.

Most of the information required for the application consists of basic questions such as your name, address and schools you are interested in, officials said.

The FAFSA must be completed each year that students are enrolled in school.

Why was last year’s FAFSA rollout such a disaster?

In 2023, the Ministry of Education revised the form for the first time in 40 years. It was part of a mandate from Congress to streamline the application so it can be completed more easily and quickly.

Changes to the FAFSA formula allowed more students to qualify for Pell Grants — awards from the federal government that do not have to be repaid.

But the rollout was plagued by constant errors and delays, ultimately resulting in fewer students applying for financial aid.

About 430,000 fewer students — mostly from low- and middle-income families — took advantage of the FAFSA last year because of the Department of Education’s failures, according to a September report from the Government Accountability Office.

The report also shows that almost three in four calls to the Department of Education’s call center went unanswered due to understaffing during the first five months after the rollout.

Commenting on the new FAFSA rollout Thursday, House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Virginia Foxx, one of the Biden Education Department’s loudest critics, said she was glad the form was out, but “the Education Department needs to now ensure that application processing is accurate, that missing capabilities are implemented quickly, and that future applicants never experience this type of failed rollout.”

How will the financial aid process work better this year?

This year’s form has already gone through four ‘beta tests’, with around 167,000 students submitting their applications.

“Simply put, the 2025-2026 FAFSA form is ready for prime time and is available both online and in paper form,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters Thursday.

The Ministry of Education said it has increased staffing at its call centers by almost 80% compared to last year. More than 700 agents have been added since January, with an additional 255 agents joining in the coming weeks as applications increase.

Starting Friday, call center hours for families seeking help with their FAFSA forms will also be expanded — from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET on weekdays and from noon to 5 p.m. ET on Saturdays.

Officials said they expect a “surge of users” today following the announcement that the form is live, which could result in delayed wait times.