Fill Out PSLF Form Online
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF) Certification and Application
Federal Student Aid
Certifies qualifying public service employment and applies for forgiveness of Direct Loans under the PSLF or TEPSLF programs.
Reviewed July 2026
How it works
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Open the form. The official PDF loads straight into the editor, no download needed first.
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Fill it out in the editor. Click anywhere to type, add checkmarks and place your signature.
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Download your PDF. Save the completed form, ready to print or submit.
The PSLF form, formally the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF) Certification and Application, does two jobs. It certifies that your employer qualifies for PSLF so your payments are tracked correctly, and it serves as the application for forgiveness once you believe you have made 120 qualifying payments on your Direct Loans.
You can open the form in the Universal PDF editor, type your borrower and employer information into pages 1 and 2, and download a clean PDF to sign and pass to your employer for certification. Federal Student Aid also offers the PSLF Help Tool at StudentAid.gov/pslf, which can generate the form with your employer's information prepopulated from the PSLF Employer Database.
What the PSLF form is used for
Public Service Loan Forgiveness cancels the remaining balance on eligible Direct Loans after the borrower has made the equivalent of 120 qualifying payments while working full time for a qualifying employer. Qualifying employers include U.S. based government organizations at any level, tax-exempt organizations under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and certain other nonprofits that provide specific public services. AmeriCorps and Peace Corps service also qualifies.
Federal Student Aid recommends submitting this form annually and whenever you change employers, so your qualifying payment count stays up to date. The 120 payments and the qualifying employment do not have to be consecutive, but you must be working for a qualifying employer at the time you apply for forgiveness.
Who should use the PSLF form
Borrowers with Direct Loans who work, or previously worked, in government, 501(c)(3) nonprofit, AmeriCorps, or Peace Corps positions. Full time for PSLF means an average of 30 or more hours per week, and part-time hours at two or more qualifying employers can be combined to reach that threshold.
FFEL Program and Perkins Loans are not eligible for PSLF on their own. If you hold those loans, the form's instructions explain that you would need to consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan first, and payments made before consolidation on FFEL or Perkins loans do not count toward the 120.
How to fill out the PSLF form
Only pages 1 through 3 are submitted; the rest of the PDF is instructions and definitions. Work through it in this order:
- Section 1: your SSN, date of birth, name, address, phone, and email
- Section 2: your request and certification, including an optional box to ask for a forbearance while a forgiveness determination is made, plus your signature and date
- Section 4: employer information, including the Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN/EIN) from box b of your W-2, the employment period, and your full-time or part-time status with average weekly hours
- Section 5A: the employer certification, signed and dated by an authorized official of the organization
- Section 5B: alternative documentation, such as W-2s or paystubs, used only if the employer has closed or cannot certify your employment
How to submit it
The form lists three submission routes: upload it by logging in to StudentAid.gov and using the My Activity page, mail it to the U.S. Department of Education, P.O. Box 300010, Greenville, TX 75403, or fax it to 540-212-2415. Omit pages 4 through 16 when mailing or faxing.
Signatures matter on this form. It accepts a handwritten signature in dark ink, a hand-drawn electronic signature made with a mouse or finger, or an embedded image of a handwritten signature. Typed names and certificate-based digital signatures are not accepted, so after filling in your answers in the editor, plan to sign by hand or use the PSLF Help Tool's electronic signature flow.
Frequently asked questions
The equivalent of 120 qualifying payments made after October 1, 2007 on Direct Loans while employed full time by a qualifying employer. The payments do not need to be consecutive, and certain deferment and forbearance months, such as military service deferment and AmeriCorps forbearance, can count as eligible payment equivalents.
An online tool at StudentAid.gov/pslf that lets you search the PSLF Employer Database, generate this form with prepopulated employer data, request an electronic signature from your employer, and submit the form directly to the Department without printing anything.
Payments under an income-driven repayment plan qualify, and so do payments under the 10-Year Standard plan or any other Direct Loan plan if they are at least equal to the 10-Year Standard amount. In practice, borrowers on a 10 year schedule would fully repay the loan by payment 120, so a remaining balance to forgive generally exists only for borrowers who have used income-driven plans. Plan availability has changed repeatedly, so check StudentAid.gov for the plans currently open.
Check the box in Section 4 indicating the employer cannot be contacted and use Section 5B instead. For military employment you can attach a DD-214 or SCRA status report. For other employers you attach W-2s for each calendar year of the period, or paystubs for every month, so the Department can verify the FEIN/EIN and the dates of employment.
No. The form specifically rejects typed names and certificate-based signatures, even in cursive-style fonts. Fill in the fields in the Universal PDF editor, then either print and sign in dark ink, draw a signature electronically, or embed an image of your handwritten signature.
Temporary Expanded PSLF, created by Congress in 2018. It can cover borrowers whose only disqualifier for PSLF was that some payments were made under a plan that does not normally qualify, such as Graduated or Extended plans. Submitting this form also serves as your TEPSLF request, and the Department evaluates both programs from the same application.
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