How To Apply for Student Loan Forgiveness

Student loan forgiveness is a great option for many borrowers who meet the qualifications. — and more people qualify for student loan forgiveness plans than you may think.

While loan forgiveness for public service has been around for a while, many people don’t realize that many federal student loans offer several loan forgiveness options.

Teachers, government workers, nurses, or private employees may be eligible for several loan forgiveness programs.

Who Is Eligible for Student Loan Forgiveness?

There are several programs that offer student loan forgiveness with different qualifications for each. Here’s how they work: 

• Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF): Available to employees of certain government agencies and non-profit organizations. You must make 120 consecutive on-time monthly student loan payments to qualify to have your remaining debt forgiven.

• Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF): Forgives up to $17,500 in loans for public school teachers. You must teach in a low-income school or educational service agency for five consecutive years to qualify. Teachers may also qualify for PSLF and you might get a higher amount forgiven versus with TLF. Review your loans to choose the right one.

• Nurse Corps Loan Repayment (NCLRP): Forgives up to 85% of unpaid nursing education debt for registered nurses (RNs), advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), and nurse faculty (NF). You must work in a Critical Shortage Facility (CSF) or an eligible nursing school (as faculty) for at least two years to earn 60% loan forgiveness. An optional third year entitles you to an additional 25% forgiveness.

• Income-Driven Repayment (IDR): Forgives the remaining balances after making on-time payments for 20 to 25 years (depending on your loan type). Plans are based on income and family size.

RELATED: How Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Works

Reasons for forgiveness

In addition to these forgiveness programs, there are some less common reasons for forgiveness, including:

• School closure. If your education institution closes you may be eligible for loan forgiveness in certain circumstances. This is available for certain federal loans.
• Perkins Loan Discharge. Perkins loans may also be discharged if you meet certain employment or volunteer requirements.
• Disability. Certain loans may be discharged if you become permanently and totally disabled.
• Death. All remaining loan balances are forgiven in the event of your death.
• Bankruptcy (in rare cases). While most bankruptcy cases cannot discharge student loan debt, some federal loans may be forgiven in specific “hardship” circumstances.

How To Apply for Student Loan Forgiveness

You can apply to have your federal student loans forgiven by following these steps:

1. Review your loans

Before you apply to have any loans forgiven, it’s important to understand the type of loans you have, your employment situation, and what programs you may qualify for.

First, know if you have government-backed student loans or private student loans.

• Most private student loans don’t offer any forgiveness options.
• Federal student loans offer many forgiveness options, as long as you don’t pursue student loan refinancing (because then it becomes a private loan).

In most cases, either PSLF or IDR-based forgiveness may be available based on your employment and income:

• If you have federal loans and work for a government employer or 501(c)3 non-profit organization, you may qualify for PSLF.
• If you have high loan balances and a lower income, you may qualify for an income-driven repayment plan (IDR). This allows you to pay a smaller monthly loan payment based on your income, expenses, and family size. If you still have a remaining balance at the end of 20 or 25 years (depending on the loan type), the balance may be forgiven.

Make sure to review your student loan forgiveness options with your loan servicer to make sure you take the required steps to qualify.

2. Apply for forgiveness 

Once you have qualified for forgiveness under one of the programs, you’ll need to submit a student loan forgiveness application. The requirements vary by program.

Here are a few examples:

Apply for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF):

To apply for PSLF, you’ll need to complete 120 on-time payments while working at a qualified non-profit or government employer.

You can submit a PSLF form using the PSLF Help Tool to ensure you’re making qualifying payments.

Once you’ve completed the qualifying payments, you’ll submit one last PSLF form to complete your forgiveness application. 

Apply for Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF):

After completing five years of qualifying employment at a low-income school or educational service agency, you can submit a TLF application form.

The chief administrative officer of your school or agency will need to fill out a portion of that form.

Each loan service will require a separate application.

Apply for Nurse Corps Loan Repayment (NCLRP):

You can apply for forgiveness of nursing education debt through the Health Resources & Services Administration online portal.

Apply for Income-Driven Repayment (IDR):

IDR forgiveness applies to anyone on an IDR plan who still has a balance after 20 years (for undergraduate loans) or 25 years (for graduate loans). Simply make on-time payments for the entire period, and the forgiveness program will forgive the remaining balances.

To apply for an IDR plan, you need to complete an application through Studentaid.gov and choose a plan that fits your circumstances best.

3. Continue making payments

Once you submit an application for federal student loan forgiveness, you need to continue making on-time payments toward your loan balance to avoid compromising the forgiveness program.

Even if you are sure you've met the requirements, missing one payment or encountering an issue may disqualify you from receiving loan forgiveness.

You should only stop making payments once you receive a statement from your loan servicer showing the loans have been forgiven.

4. Confirm forgiveness

To confirm your loans have been forgiven, you can log into your student loan servicer portal and look for a $0 balance for your student loans.

Even after seeing this, it’s a good idea to call your loan servicer and verify that no more student loan payments will be due.

You may need to submit additional supporting documentation for forms, depending on what your servicer requires.

Once the loans are forgiven, you should also receive a formal letter stating as much. Keep all documentation in regards to your student loan forgiveness in a file in case you need to present it as evidence in the future.

RELATED: How To Refinance Student Loans

How Long Does It Take for Student Loan Forgiveness?

The time it takes for student loans to be forgiven varies by program. Here are a few of the timelines required for different programs:

• PSLF. This takes about 10 years or 120 consecutive on-time monthly payments.
• TLF. Teacher loan forgiveness requires five years of working at a qualified employer.
• NCLRP. The Nurse Corps loan forgiveness program forgives up to 60% after two years of working at an eligible facility, and another 25% after the third year.
• IDR. Income-driven repayment plans forgive remaining balances after 20 years for undergraduate student loans and 25 years for graduate student loans.

Once you apply for student loan forgiveness, the relevant authority will manually review and approve your application. This can take several months or more, depending on the program and your specific circumstances.

Ask your loan servicer how long they expect forgiveness to take and make sure to continue making monthly loan payments until your loans are officially forgiven.

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