How to Fill Out and Submit the MOHELA Student Loan Forbearance Form

To request forbearance on your MOHELA-serviced federal loans, complete the federal forbearance request form that matches your situation and send it to MOHELA. The general forbearance request covers broad financial hardship; separate mandatory forbearance forms cover specific situations like heavy debt burden, medical or dental residency, National Guard duty, or a Department of Defense loan repayment program. You can upload the completed MOHELA student loan forbearance form through the borrower portal at mohela.studentaid.gov, fax it to 866-222-7060, or mail it to MOHELA, 633 Spirit Drive, Chesterfield, MO 63005-1243.¹ Forbearance pauses or reduces your payments, but interest keeps accruing on most loan types, so use it as short-term relief while you work out something longer-term.

Pick the Right Form Before You Start

Two forms are available to borrowers. Picking the correct one avoids a rejection and a restart.

General Forbearance Request

The general forbearance form is for broad financial difficulty. You check one of four reasons on the form: financial difficulties, a change in employment, medical expenses, or “other” with a written explanation. Approval is discretionary, so the explanation matters. A single period cannot exceed 12 months. Perkins Loans have a cumulative three-year cap, and MOHELA sets its own cumulative limit for Direct Loans and FFEL loans.²

Mandatory Forbearance Request

Mandatory forbearance must be approved if you meet the criteria and document them. Each category has its own form:

Student loan debt burden: your total monthly Title IV loan payments equal or exceed 20 percent of your monthly gross income. You calculate this on the form and attach income documentation (tax returns, W-2s, or pay stubs) plus statements showing your monthly loan payments. Maximum eligibility is 36 months.³
Medical or dental internship/residency: you qualify only if you do not qualify for a medical or dental internship/residency deferment. Your residency program must certify the form.⁴
National Guard duty: active state duty for more than 30 consecutive days under a governor’s activation, when you do not qualify for a military service deferment. A commanding or personnel officer completes the certification section.⁴
DOD student loan repayment program: you are performing service qualifying for partial loan repayment under a DOD program.⁴

If you don’t qualify for mandatory forbearance, your servicer may still apply a general forbearance for the same period if you’re otherwise eligible.³

One boundary worth noting: administrative forbearance is applied by the Department of Education, not requested by you, and there is no form for it. It shows up in situations like resolving eligibility for a discharge or forgiveness program, or protecting accounts during a servicing transition.⁵

Filling Out the General Forbearance Form

The federal General Forbearance Request form has seven sections. You only fill out the first three. The remaining sections are instructions, definitions, mailing information, and privacy notices.²

Section 1, Borrower Information. Enter your Social Security number, full name, current mailing address, primary and alternate phone numbers, and email address. Check the box at the top if any of your contact information has changed since your last correspondence with MOHELA.

Section 2, Forbearance Request. Check one of the four hardship reasons: financial difficulties, change in employment, medical expenses, or other. If you choose “other,” write a brief and specific explanation. Indicate whether you want to stop payments entirely or make reduced payments at a specific dollar amount per month. Then fill in the month and year you want the forbearance to begin and the month and year you want it to end. Aligning the start date with your next payment due date helps you avoid a late mark during processing.

Section 3, Certifications and Signature. Print your name, enter your Social Security number, date the form, and sign it. An unsigned or undated form is the most common reason for immediate rejection. If you are an endorser on a PLUS loan requesting forbearance on your own behalf, you sign here as well.

Filling Out a Mandatory Forbearance Form

Mandatory forms are longer because they require you to prove eligibility through a calculation or third-party certification.

On the debt burden form, Section 2 is where the work happens. Enter your monthly gross income in Item 2, multiply it by 0.20 in Item 3 to get 20 percent of that income, and enter the total of your monthly payments on all Title IV loans in Item 4. If Item 4 is equal to or greater than Item 3, you qualify. Attach documentation for both numbers: tax returns or pay stubs for income, and billing statements or repayment schedules for the loan payments.³

On the residency, National Guard, and DOD form, you complete the identifying sections and a third party completes the certification: a residency program director, a commanding or personnel officer, or a DOD official confirms your eligible service. Make sure the certifier signs and dates their section before you submit. Without that signature the form is incomplete.⁴

How to Submit the Form to MOHELA

MOHELA accepts forbearance requests three ways. The fastest is uploading a scanned copy or clear photo of your completed form through the borrower portal at mohela.studentaid.gov. Log in, open the document upload tool, and attach your form together with any supporting documentation. The portal generates a confirmation that the upload was received.¹

You can also fax the packet to 866-222-7060 or mail it to MOHELA, 633 Spirit Drive, Chesterfield, MO 63005-1243.¹ If you mail it, use a service with tracking. Certified mail gives you proof of delivery if there is ever a dispute about whether the form arrived. Whichever method you use, keep a copy of the signed form and every attachment.

If you’d rather handle the request by phone, or want help before you submit, MOHELA customer service is at 1-888-866-4352. Representatives are available Monday 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. ET, Tuesday through Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET, and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET.⁶ Have your Social Security number or account number ready; the automated system requires it before connecting you to an agent.

What Happens After You Submit

MOHELA sends a letter confirming whether your forbearance was approved or denied. Keep making your regular payments until you receive that confirmation. If your request is still under review when a payment comes due, paying protects you from delinquency and negative credit reporting, and if the forbearance is later backdated, any overpayment applies to your balance.

Once approved, your account status changes to forbearance and your next payment due date shifts to the month after the forbearance period ends. Log in occasionally to confirm the dates look right and to check whether MOHELA has requested additional documentation. If your request is denied, the letter should explain why. Typical reasons are a missing signature, incomplete income documentation, or ineligibility for the mandatory category you selected. You can correct the issue and resubmit.

Mistakes That Get Forms Rejected

MOHELA rejects incomplete forms outright, and resubmitting means starting the clock over. These are the errors that come up most often:

Missing or mismatched signature and date. Every signature line needs both, and a signature date that conflicts with your requested period can trigger a follow-up.
No supporting documentation on the debt burden form. The form requires proof of both income and loan payments. Submitting without attachments guarantees a denial.
Third-party certification left blank. For residency, National Guard, and DOD forbearance, the certifying official’s section must be complete before you submit. A partially filled form gets returned.
Requesting dates that have already passed. If you need forbearance applied retroactively, call MOHELA at 1-888-866-4352 to talk through your options before mailing in a back-dated request.⁶
Wrong form for the situation. Using the general form when you actually qualify for a mandatory category means the servicer has discretion to deny what would otherwise be guaranteed. Match your situation to the right form.

Before You File: Know What Forbearance Costs

Interest does not stop accruing during forbearance. On unsubsidized loans, it accumulates the entire time. On subsidized loans, the government covers interest during certain deferments but not during forbearance. When the forbearance period ends, any unpaid accrued interest capitalizes: it is added to your principal, and you then pay interest on a larger balance.⁷

That is why forbearance is often the wrong tool when the hardship is income-related. A cheaper option probably exists.

Income-Driven Repayment

If your income is low enough, an income-driven repayment plan can reduce your monthly payment to $0, and those $0 payments count toward forgiveness under programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness. You keep making progress even while paying nothing. Borrowers currently enrolled in the SAVE Plan should know that the Department of Education has indicated SAVE borrowers cannot make progress toward loan discharge programs and should consider switching to an alternative IDR plan to earn qualifying payments.⁸

Starting July 1, 2026, a new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) becomes available under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. RAP payments are calculated on a sliding scale of 1 to 10 percent of adjusted gross income, with a minimum payment of $10 and a $50-per-dependent reduction. RAP includes an interest subsidy that prevents negative amortization on all eligible loan types and forgives any remaining balance after 30 years of payments. Parent PLUS loans are not eligible.⁹

Cancer Treatment Deferment

Borrowers undergoing cancer treatment qualify for a specialized deferment rather than forbearance, with a significant advantage: interest is not charged during the deferment period on most Direct Loan types, subsidized and unsubsidized. The deferment lasts through the full course of treatment plus six months after treatment ends. If treatment extends beyond one year, you reapply with new physician certification. A separate Cancer Treatment Deferment Request form is available on the Federal Student Aid website.¹⁰

Standard Deferment

Deferments exist for borrowers who are enrolled in school at least half-time, unemployed and actively seeking work, or experiencing economic hardship. On subsidized loans, the government pays interest during deferment, which makes it cheaper than forbearance. Check the deferment options first. Forbearance is meant for situations where deferment doesn’t apply.

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MOHELA. MOHELA Forms
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Federal Student Aid. General Forbearance Request
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Federal Student Aid. Mandatory Forbearance Request – Student Loan Debt Burden
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Federal Student Aid. Mandatory Forbearance Request – Medical or Dental Internship, National Guard, and DOD Student Loan Repayment
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eCFR. 34 CFR 685.205 – Forbearance
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MOHELA. MOHELA Contact Us
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Federal Student Aid. Interest Capitalization
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U.S. Department of Education. U.S. Department of Education Continues to Improve Federal Student Loan Repayment Options
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Congress.gov. The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) in P.L. 119-21
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Federal Student Aid. Cancer Treatment Deferment Request