Once we've received all of the documentation needed to determine whether you qualify for loan forgiveness, you'll be notified. A final review of your account will be done to process forgiveness, which will take at least 90 business days.
You must wait until after your 6-month grace period ends to start making qualifying payments. Your grace period should end in November the year you graduate, so that is when your 10 year repayment term begins. You cannot waive your grace period to start making PSLF payments sooner.
PSLF Process
Because you have to make 120 qualifying monthly payments, it will take at least 10 years before you can qualify for PSLF. Important: You must still be working for a qualifying employer at the time you submit your form for forgiveness.
What will happen if my Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) application is approved? If you are approved for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, you'll be notified that the entire remaining balance of your eligible Direct Loans, including all outstanding interest and principal, will be forgiven.
Is there a limit on the dollar amount that can be forgiven? There is no limit to how much can be forgiven by PSLF. The program forgives the remaining balance of your federal student debt after 10 years of service and 120 payments to your federal student loans.
If the total payments exceed 120, you might be eligible for a PSLF overpayment refund. Will you get a refund after student loan forgiveness? If you've already been granted student loan forgiveness or repaid your loans, you don't qualify for a PSLF overpayment refund.
Applications are approved at roughly the same rate. 2.3% of processed applications for PSLF had been approved since the program's inception. In the program's first year, 0.32% of applications were approved.
After you've reached 120 payments and all other PSLF requirements are met, you must request forgiveness of your remaining loan balance using the PSLF form. After this request is made, a final review of your account will be performed to process forgiveness, which will take about 60 business days.
If you have not consolidated your Direct Loans, you can buy back months starting with Oct. 2007, when the PSLF program was established by law. If you have Direct consolidation loans, you can buy back starting with whichever is most recent: Oct. 2007 or the earliest disbursement date of your Direct Consolidation Loan.
Typically, months in forbearance and deferment do not count towards PSLF. However, months during the COVID-19 payment pause (March 2020-September 2023), months that qualify under the IDR Adjustment, and months where loans are being placed on administrative forbearance after the repayment restart will count toward PSLF.
Borrowers who still have FFEL and Perkins Loans can only get credit for past payments if they consolidate into DL and file PSLF Forms for prior employment before Oct. 31, 2022. After Oct. 31, 2022, normal PSLF/TEPSLF requirements will apply.
If you faxed or mailed your PSLF form to MOHELA it may take up to 14 days for your mohela.com account to note that the form was received. Please allow at least 90 business days for your form to be processed.
Any new Direct Subsidized Loans or Direct Unsubsidized Loans you receive won't enter repayment until the end of the six-month grace period after you leave school.
If you work in certain public service jobs and have made 120 payments on your Direct Loans, you may be eligible to have your loans forgiven. If some or all of your payments were not made on a qualifying repayment plan for PSLF, you may be able to receive loan forgiveness under a temporary opportunity.
The PSLF Program forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you have made 120 (10 years) qualifying monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan, while working full-time for a qualifying employer.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is a federal program that can erase your student loan balance after you make 10 years' worth of monthly payments, for a total of 120 payments, while working for the government or a nonprofit organization.
Don't forget to submit the PSLF form with your employment certification annually. If you're on an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan, you can make it a habit to submit your form at the same time of year as you renew your IDR plan.
For PSLF purposes, you are considered a full-time employee if you work an average of 30 hours or more per week during the period being certified on your PSLF form regardless of whether your employer considers you full-time for other purposes.
Required Commitment and Lengthy Duration
One of the notable drawbacks of PSLF for doctors is the required commitment. To be eligible for forgiveness, you must make 120 qualifying payments, which essentially means 10 years of service in a qualifying organization.
Contrary to some perceptions, that's not because the Department of Education is capriciously denying borrowers relief to which they are legally entitled; most PSLF applications were rejected because borrowers have not met program requirements.
To maximize your PSLF benefit, repay your loans on the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan, the Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan, or the Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) Plan, which are three repayment plans that qualify for PSLF. PSLF is best under IBR, Pay As You Earn, or ICR.
Don't forget to submit the PSLF form with your employment certification every year. If your PSLF form is approved for forgiveness, then you'll be notified that the entire remaining balance of your eligible Direct Loans will be forgiven, including all outstanding interest and principal.
You're entitled to a refund if the PSLF Waiver credits you for more than 120 qualifying payments on an existing Direct Loan. But if you made those payments towards a Federal Perkins Loan or FFEL Loan and then consolidated, you won't get a refund.
The timeline can vary from one loan servicer to the next. However, if you're seeking a refund from MOHELA, you can expect the first check to arrive within 90 business days, and the rest within 60 days. Also note that you'll likely receive multiple refund checks rather than a single refund.