Awaiting Form Administrative Forbearance: What It Means

• Your lender applies forbearance to keep your account in good standing while they handle updates or changes.

• If you’re in SAVE-related forbearance, interest won’t grow during this time, but it also won’t count toward forgiveness progress under programs like PSLF.

• You can request forbearance manually if you’re struggling to make monthly payments or waiting for your repayment plan to be processed.

“Awaiting Form Administrative Forbearance” means your student loan payments are temporarily paused while your loan servicer (like MOHELA or Aidvantage) works on changes to your account. This pause stops your loans from becoming overdue while they handle paperwork or update your repayment plan.

To help you understand this status better, this guide covers:

• What this status actually means

• How it impacts your interest and loan forgiveness progress

• What you can do if you run into issues with this status

Not sure about the types of forbearance available? Check out our comprehensive guide on Student Loan Forbearance.

The Awaiting Form Administrative Forbearance status is divided into two types, each affecting your loans differently:

• Processing Forbearance: This is a short pause on payments (up to 60 days) while your loan servicer handles your IDR application or recalculates your payments. Interest still adds up, but the pause counts toward forgiveness under Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans.

• General Forbearance (SAVE Plan Related): This is a longer pause for SAVE plan participants affected by a court ruling. You don’t need to make payments, and no interest will build up, but this time, it won’t count toward forgiveness programs.

Despite its name, there isn’t a specific “form” being awaited. It’s just a way for servicers to say, “we’re processing internal changes,” and it ensures your account stays on hold while changes are made.

You might see this status for a couple of reasons. If you’ve applied for the SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education) or another income-driven repayment plan or already enrolled in SAVE, this forbearance might pop up.

It’s a protective measure that keeps your account in good standing while everything gets sorted out.

The major reason? Legal challenges and policy adjustments around SAVE have thrown the system into a bit of chaos.

Even if you’re on a repayment plan like PAYE or IBR that isn’t directly affected by these legal issues, you could still get caught in the ripple effects as the Department of Education adjusts how it handles things.

If you feel stuck while using SAVE as your repayment plan, our guide on SAVE forbearance can help you determine your next steps.

Here’s where things get tricky—and where you’ll want to pay close attention:

• Processing Forbearance: Interest will build up during this type of forbearance. If you’re on autopay, your interest rate reduction might also be temporarily suspended. On the bright side, this time counts toward forgiveness progress.

• SAVE-Related Forbearance: No interest accumulates here, but… it also doesn’t count toward forgiveness. It’s a trade-off.

How to Solve Interest Issues

• Step 1: Document the interest charges with screenshots

• Step 2: Keep records of when your forbearance started

• Step 3: Contact your student loan servicer to flag the issue

• Step 4: Consider submitting a complaint to the Department of Education if the servicer doesn’t resolve it.

Pro tip: You don’t have to make monthly payments during either type of forbearance, but any payments you make will go toward future bills once forbearance ends. Some borrowers pay during this time to stop interest from adding up or to keep making progress toward forgiveness.

It depends on which type of student loan forbearance you’re in and which forgiveness program you’re pursuing. Here’s what you need to know:

• Processing Forbearance: This counts toward forgiveness for PSLF and IDR, but only for up to 60 days. After that, your forgiveness progress pauses if your account shifts to a general forbearance.

• SAVE-Related Forbearance: Unfortunately, this time doesn’t count toward forgiveness. If you’re working toward PSLF, you might want to consider switching to a plan like Pay As You Earn (PAYE) or Income-Based Repayment (IBR) to keep earning credits.

If you’re close to hitting your forgiveness thresholds (like 120 PSLF payments or 20/25 years of IDR payments), keep a close eye on your payment history to make sure nothing gets overlooked.

Have you decided to change plans? Our guide on Changing My Student Loan Repayment Plan can help you walk through the process.

The Department of Education continues to process one-time account adjustments even while these forbearances are in place.

If you believe you’ve hit your forgiveness threshold (120 PSLF payments or 20/25 years of IDR payments) through the adjustment, your current forbearance status shouldn’t stop your forgiveness from being processed.

But, many borrowers are experiencing significant delays, and being in administrative forbearance doesn’t necessarily mean your forgiveness is being processed.

Notes:

• The Department hasn’t clarified whether current forbearance periods will be eligible for future PSLF buy-back opportunities, so keep documentation of your forbearance periods.

• Forgiveness features of SAVE, PAYE, and ICR (Income-Contingent Repayment) are currently paused due to court orders, but IBR forgiveness remains intact because it was created by Congress.

• If you think you’ve reached forgiveness thresholds but haven’t received them, being in forbearance isn’t necessarily the cause of the delay — the Department is still working through a backlog of adjustments.

• Payment counting continues even while forgiveness implementation is paused, so you won’t lose the progress you’ve already made.

The reality is that much of this situation is outside of your control, but here’s what you need to know about managing your loans during this time:

Forbearance End Dates

• There’s no fixed end date for these forbearances

• Your account may show an end date, but expect it to be extended automatically

• You might receive a bill with a surprisingly high amount before the forbearance is extended.

• Servicers like Aidvantage, MOHELA, EdFinancial, and Nelnet generally extend forbearances automatically.

Making Payments

• You can pay during forbearance, but it might not help much since interest keeps adding up.

• Any payments made now would build up a “nest” of advance payments, but we don’t yet know which repayment plan you’ll ultimately be in, what your future payment amount will be, or what options will be available when payments resume.

If Forbearance Isn’t Showing

• Some borrowers, especially those with pending IDR applications, may not see the forbearance apply automatically.

• If you’ve submitted an IDR application and don’t see the forbearance status, contact your servicer to request it.

• This is particularly important for Parent PLUS borrowers who did a double consolidation and are waiting to enroll in SAVE.

Related: Should I Switch From SAVE to IBR?

If you haven’t been automatically placed into administrative forbearance despite submitting an IDR application or requesting a plan change, you’ll need to take action:

Contact Your Servicer

• Call your loan servicer and request the administrative forbearance

• They should backdate the forbearance to bring your account current

• Typically, they’ll add 60 days of forbearance from the date they process your request

• Be prepared to reference your IDR application submission date

Special Situations to Watch For

• Paper IDR Applications: Some lenders (like EdFinancial) may require you to submit through studentaid.gov to trigger the forbearance, even if you’ve already submitted a paper application

• Recent Consolidations: Borrowers who recently consolidated often must manually request forbearance from their student loan servicer.

• Interest Issues: If you see incorrect interest charges, document them and work with your servicer to remove them. If that fails, contact the FSA Ombudsman.

The honest answer is that there’s significant uncertainty about what happens next. Due to ongoing litigation and potential policy changes, several scenarios are possible:

Potential Outcomes:

• You might resume payments under your current SAVE plan.

• SAVE could be discontinued, leaving IBR, PAYE, or ICR as your options.

• IDR plans could be significantly restricted, with only IBR available to borrowers demonstrating partial financial hardship.

• Other repayment options might emerge based on legal and policy developments.

What You Can Do Now:

• Keep monitoring your account for updates

• Save any servicer communications

• Watch for announcements from the Federal Student Aid

• Don’t make any major financial decisions based on assumptions about future repayment options

The situation remains fluid, and when forbearance ends, the landscape of repayment options could be very different. For now, focus on maintaining good records and staying informed about developments in your account status.

If you see the “awaiting form administrative forbearance” status on your federal student loan account, it means your loan servicer is processing changes, and you’re protected from missed payments during this time.

Whether in a short-term processing forbearance or the longer SAVE plan forbearance, your loan status is stable despite the confusing terminology.

Knowing your type of forbearance matters. Interest adds up during the 60-day processing period but helps with forgiveness progress. With SAVE plan forbearance, there’s no forgiveness progress, but no interest builds up either.

Need to stay updated on these changes? Sign up for our weekly newsletter for the latest federal student loan updates and what they mean for borrowers like you.

Related reading:

• Why Is My Student Loan In Administrative Forbearance?

• Can’t Pay Your Loans? Consider Forbearance or Deferment

• Types of Federal Student Loan Forbearance

• Parent PLUS Loan Forbearance

• Does Forbearance Count Towards PSLF? Yes