4 key things student-loan borrowers should watch out for after applying for Biden's debt cancellation

It's easy to apply for President Joe Biden's student-loan forgiveness, but it's important to make sure millions of borrowers actually get the relief.

The application for student-debt relief was officially launched by Biden and Cardona on Monday, and they promised to make the form easy to understand. To receive up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness, borrowers need to fill out basic contact information, such as their names and Social Security numbers, in less than 5 minutes. The Education Department will notify borrowers if they have to provide additional documentation to make sure their income is under the threshold.

If I am elected president, I will make government work and deliver for the people. Bringing student loan debt relief to people who need it the most as they recover from the Pandemic will keep that commitment.

—President Biden (@POTUS) October 17, 2022

The implementation process is important, and borrowers should make sure that the Education Department, along with the companies that service their loans, are handling the process correctly.

According to Federal Student Aid, borrowers should look out for four things.

1. You should receive an email confirmation after submitting your application. Save that confirmation because your studentaid.gov account will not show the status of your relief.
2. The department will review your application to confirm your eligibility. If it doesn't have enough information to do so, you should receive an email with instructions on how to provide any additional documentation. You may receive a follow up if the department needs more information to verify your income, if you were enrolled as a dependent student in the past year and the department needs your parent's income, or if your loans are determined ineligible.
3. Once your eligibility is confirmed, the department will notify you. It will determine how the debt relief will be applied to your loans — this is how that will be determined — and the department will provide that information to your loan servicer.
4. Your loan servicer will apply the debt relief to your account. If you have multiple servicers, each one of them will notify you of this change separately and will let you know if your loans are paid in full, or if you still have a remaining balance. If the latter is the case, your servicer will also alert you to your new monthly payment once payments resume in January 2023.

If you don't receive an email asking for more information, you have already done your part and should keep an eye out for the notices that your debt relief has been processed. Over 8 million borrowers have already applied for relief, and Biden said on Monday that his administration will make sure the process goes smoothly.