r/PSLF

I was one of many who received my golden letter yesterday. Today, the balance is $0 on Mohela!!! It's OFFICIAL official, and all happening three days before my birthday!! I couldn't ask for a better birthday gift, than 200+K being discharged. This subreddit really is a gem. I remember finding it back in 2022 and reading other's experiences. It motivated me to pay attention to my loans. Then the Biden administration rules that made FFELP loans eligible through consolidation, and the highest payment counts applying to that loan, really made this possible. After 18 years of public service, I'm finally done. Thank you all who shared your knowledge and information!!

To those of you who are just getting started, or has a little ways to go. Keep going!! You will get here too! Keep checking this community, asking those questions, and paying attention. Congrats y'all, we earned this!!🎉🎊🎊

MOHELA balance is officially $0! Loan forgiveness came through 24 hours after receiving the golden letter from FSA! Check your accounts if you received the May golden letters.

Got my golden letter yesterday so I’ve been checking Mohela relentlessly to see the zero. I just checked and my loan amount went down by like 2/3. Why isn’t it zero? How is everyone else’s Mohela looking right now?

EDIT: It appears the principal is gone and just interest remains as the balance.

EDIT 2: IT’S ALL GONE

I am an April golden letter and I received my check from the treasury today and just deposited it!! Officially done and done.

I am 2 payments away from my 120 qualifying payments. (June and july payments).

Should I start the process now since it can take months (some reported it taking up to a year), or will that mess me up?

Thanks!

I just received the second notice email myself regarding the SAVE plan situation. I’m still very early in my PSLF journey. I’ve only made about 2 years’ worth of qualifying payments, so I’m nowhere near the finish line yet.

For those in a similar position, what’s your game plan? Are you planning to just wait things out until July 1 and see what happens, or are you proactively switching plans before they potentially kick people off?

I honestly can’t tell if these emails are just warning notices/scare tactics or if people should already be making moves. Curious what everyone else is thinking or planning to do.

A huge thanks to all of you who have helped me during this whole process. Waterwicca and Betsy and all the rest of you. You keep me from making some life altering errors and kept me and my wife sane. It’s a crazy system where the premier source of information is this subreddit, but here we are.

(To celebrate, I’m going to be donating to The Institute for Student Loan Advisors as a way to pay it forward)

Many thanks all!

Sorry if this question has been posted here before, but I'm trying to see whether or not my past work experience is eligible to be backlogged or count towards the ten years if I wasn't making payments at the time.

It has been seven years since I finished undergrad, and I have never made a student loan repayment due to forbearance, COVID, and then re-enrolling in grad school. But in that time, I've spent roughly five years working full-time in either the federal gov or 501c-3s. Can this experience help in anyway towards PSLF? Or is it useless due to the fact that I was never making qualified payments?

Thanks in advance.

I was one of the lucky people who received a golden letter from FSA yesterday, 5/21. Nelnet has not updated my loan balance nor sent any emails regarding forgiveness (which I understand it’s been less than 24 hours).

I’m wondering what the timeline has been historically for those with Nelnet to have their balances zeroed out after their golden letter. Mostly curious because most of the timeline posts I found in the sub were Mohela and were zeroed out the same or next day.

Hi everyone, would really appreciate some guidance on this. Just graduated med school this week and trying to decide whether consolidating my federal loans makes sense.

Current situation:

• ~$362k principal
• ~$60k accrued interest so far
• All federal loans (Direct + Grad PLUS)
• Planning on a long training path: likely ~8 years total of residency/fellowship
• Going into a high-paying specialty eventually

My thinking:

• I’m leaning toward the RAP repayment option mainly for the interest subsidy benefits during training.
• I want to keep the option open to aggressively pay the loans off myself if I’m an attending in private practice.
• I’m probably only ~60% confident I’ll ultimately pursue PSLF.

My dilemma:

• If I consolidate now and waive the 6-month grace period, I can start getting qualifying PSLF payments earlier, which could help a lot at the tail end if I stay on the PSLF path.
• But if I don’t end up doing PSLF and instead aggressively repay the loans myself, then the accrued interest (~$60k now, probably ~$80k after grace) would capitalize after consolidation, meaning future interest accrues on a larger balance.

So I’m trying to figure out:

• Does consolidating now make sense given my uncertainty about PSLF?
• How much should I weigh the earlier PSLF qualifying payments vs avoiding capitalization?
• Any attendings/residents regret consolidating (or not consolidating) in a similar situation?

Finally received golden letter from student aid May 21, 2026. I kept receiving messages saying "you have no loans that are not eligible for forgiveness". Checked again in the 'my activity' section on fsa; scrolled all the way down to find correspondence saying "PSLF Forgiveness Notification". I am elated that the student aid parole board will be notifying mohela to release me in 30 days. Keep hope alive fellow cohorts. God is good all the time.

I am in SAVE forbearance and plan to move to RAP at the last minute when forced to. Studentaid.gov says my income recertification is due 7/1/26. Mohela doesn't have any specific date, just the SAVE plan ending date. Do I have to recertify in July if I will still be in forbearance till September or can I wait?

Check your accounts y'all

My husband doesn't even have student loans but he sat here and cried. Said he was just overwhelmed by how much everyone has gone through. That we would fill a stadium. Thinking about the mass of people who have been negatively affected by a process that was supposed to be mutually beneficial just completely overwhelmed him.

Congratulations everyone! So proud of us for everything we've been through on top of our service.

Hi. This is probably relevant for the group of us that received golden letters yesterday. Congrats all. Does anyone know the next steps for when Mohela will reimburse for payments made past the 120? And if we need to do anything to facilitate? Also curious if anyone knows realistically how long it is taking for sites to reflect 0$

"We have determined you are eligible for PSLF one or more of your loans." Just received a few minutes ago.

Is this the golden letter???

Hey guys,

I got my green banners stating I reached my 120 payments on 5/9 after I submitted my final employment recertification.

I requested the forbearance which was approved by mohlea and I am currently waiting on the golden letter.

My recertification is up on July and I heard of that is not done they change your payments which is why I requested the forbearance hoping it should be gone by then. I should be okay and will not need to re-certify since the forbearance was approved right?

Thank you in advance for your time and help! Truly grateful for this community!

Why are they so hard to find???

Go to Activity…

Scroll down farther then you think

Click public student loan forgiveness with down arrow …looks like a generic link.

Golden letters are in there!!

It shouldn’t be this hard! lol

Hi all - I’m going to hit 120 in July and have a job offer that I’m going to delay the start date of until July. My question is around the timing of my July payment and the transition. My July payment is due July 19th but I plan to make my start date at the new job before that time. If I make my July payment on July 3rd or 4th, while still employed by an eligible employer, I’m good, right? My concern is the due date timing versus the transition date timing. Realize I’m being a bit neurotic, but hate to screw up 10 years of planning at the 1 yard line. I also have a buy back application in but this may beat the buy back, which I submitted in October.

Green Banners on 4/14/26 and called mohela on 5/1 to go into admin forebearance with MOHELA

Anyone get the golden letters yet ?

EDIT: I think there is a glitch in the notification system!!!! Went to my activity and scrolled down to loan forgiveness and received my golden letter 😭❤️. Just waiting for Mohela to send me their notification within 30 business days.

Just got a notification on FSA stating “your PSLF application has no loans that qualify for PSLF.”

I hit 120 payments this past month after being on the PAYE IDR plan for the past 10 years. I’ve never missed a single payment, I’ve worked for a qualifying employer (state government, emergency management) for all 10 years, and I submitted all of the necessary paperwork. I started payments in April of 2016.

Can someone please help me understand why my loans don’t qualify?? Can I get this reversed? I am desperate and a huge part of me has stayed in state service to get rid of these loans. I’ve really been looking forward to the freedom of being able to move on to private sector work if I choose.

My loans are all subsidized or unsubsidized direct loans! No private loans.