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Frequently Asked Questions - Registration and Sign-on

 
Q1: Who should and should not apply for access to the FHA Connection?
A1: Employees of FHA approved lenders who need access to the FHA Connection web site in order to originate or service FHA loans. These users would apply for either a FHA Connection Standard user ID or an FHA Connection Application Coordiantor user ID.

Also people employees of companies that are contracted with HUD to perform Underwriter Reviews and appraisers that perform appraiser reviews or need to maintain the information HUD has on file for them, such as their address, phone number etc. These people would apply for a URS user ID and Appraiser user ID respectively.

Finally, employees other federal agencies and employees of other lending institutions that are not FHA approved, but need access to CAVIRS will also need access to the portion of the site for CAIVRS only. These people would click on the "CAIVRS Web site" link on the "Registering a New User" page to get to the appropriate portion of the site. They will find links on that page to apply for CAIVRS user ID depending if they are a "Government Agency" or a "Lending Institution".

People who should NOT apply for access to the FHA Connection, but may need access to HUD systems are auditors assisting lenders with submitting their financial statements. The auditors do not need access to the FHA Connection, but rather to the Secure Connection to be able to access the Lender Assessment Subsystem (LASS) functions. These people would go to the URL http://www.hud.gov/offices/reac/online/reasyst.cfm to access the Secure Connection. Before they will be able to login to the Secure Connection they will need to apply for an Independent user ID by clicking the "Register online" link, then the "Independent User" link, and complete the form.
Q2: Is it necessary for eveyone to apply for their own user ID, or can our organization share a single ID?
A2: As stated in Mortgagee Letters 97-14 and 93-13, each FHA Connection user must obtain their own user ID. User IDs are NOT to be shared. Passwords should never be shared, displayed online or divulged publicly. They should not be given to third parties in telephone conversations, placed on office message boards, or left written on telephone message notes on unattended workstations. Using an FHA Connection user ID assigned to another person falls under the provisions of Title 18, United States Code, section 1030. This law specifies penalties for exceeding authorized access, alteration, damage or destruction of information residing on Federal Computers.
Q3: How do I apply for access to the FHA Connection?
A3: Information on how to apply for a FHA Connection user ID, which is needed to access the web site, and links to the online registration forms may be found on the Registering page. Applying for a user ID is as simple as completing one of the two registration forms. Please do not apply for both types of user IDs since a person can only be assigned one FHA Connection user ID. If you are not sure which ID to apply for, you may want to refer to the question "I have gone to the "Registering" page and there are two types of user IDs: application coordinator and standard user. Which one should I apply for?" to determine the differences between the two. If you are still uncertain as which one to apply for, then we suggest that you contact your corporate office concerning the issue on what type of user ID you should obtain.
Q4: Is there an alternative FHA Connection registration method other than the Internet?
A4: At this time, you can only apply for FHA Connection user IDs through the Internet registration forms.
Q5: Can an approved loan correspondent register to use the FHA Connection?
A5: Yes, simply complete one of the registration forms. To find were the registration forms are, please refer to the question "How do I apply for access to the FHA Connection?"
Q6: I have gone to the "Registering" page and there are two types of user IDs: application coordinator and standard user. Which one should I apply for?
A6: We cannot tell you which one you need to apply for, but we can tell you about the differences in the two types of user IDs. This may help you in your decision. There are three key differences in the user IDs: the number of the IDs that may be assigned under each type for each lending institution, their functionality and how they are issued.

The number of IDs that may be assigned is limited for application coordinator types. If you're an FHA approved lender, at any given time, there may only be four active application coordinators. As for standard users, there is no limit on the number of standard user ID being assigned per lending institution.

The only difference in the functionality between an application coordinator and standard user is that application coordinators have the added administration functionality. This includes the administration of user IDs assigned under the company's lender ID and relationships with service bureaus. Other then those functions, standard users can access the same functions as application coordinators and vice versa.

The procedures in issuing the two types of user IDs are completely different. Application coordinator user IDs are sent to the CEO so they may make the determination whether the person requesting the Application Coordinator ID should be issued the user ID or not. If you are concerned if the letter will be mailed to the correct address, you can verify the address HUD will use through the CEO Mailing Address page.

Standard user IDs must be retrieved by an FHA Connection Application Coordinator. Therefore a person in the company must be setup as an FHA Connection Application Coordinator in order to retrieve the standard user ID for the person who applied. If you are thinking of applying for a standard user ID, but are not certain if anyone in your company is setup as an FHA Connection Application Coordinator, please contact the Home Ownership Center in your region or send an e-mail message to SFADMIN@hud.gov to inquire if anyone is set up as such with your company. To determine if any one is set up as an FHA Connection Application Coordinator in your company, they will need your company's ten-digit lender ID, so please have it handy if you call or include it in your e-mail message.
Q7: Can FHA Connection Application Coordinator IDs be sent to someone other than the lender's CEO?
A7: No, FHA Connection Application Coordinator IDs can be sent only to the lender's CEO. The security system is set up so the CEO makes the determination whether the person requesting the FHA Connection Application Coordinator ID should receive it.
Q8: The CEO's mailing address is incorrect. How do I get the address updated to the correct address?
A8: If the CEO mailing address is incorrect, you may correct it by faxing a letter to HUD's Lender & Recertification Approval Division at (202) 755-0303. The letter, on company letterhead and signed by a Vice President or higher official, must cite your company's ten-digit lender ID, the old and new addresses - including county, and which addresses should be changed, the CHUMS/mailing address in this case. If you want confirmation that FHA's records have been updated, please include your fax number and a contact.
Q9: Can a user ID be given out by e-mail, phone, or fax instead of being mailed to the CEO or being retrieved by the FHA Connection Application Coordinator?
A9: No, the security policies prohibit us from giving out the information through any other means then the ways stated in Mortgagee Letter 1997-14. These ways are the mailing of the application coordinator user IDs and the standard user IDs being retrieved by the FHA Connection Application Coordinator.
Q10: I am completing the registration form and I see that it requires that I enter my Social Security Number (SSN) and mother's maiden name. I am concerned about providing that information on the Internet and am wondering why the form requires my SSN and mother's maiden name.
A10: According to government regulations, your SSN is required when trying to access a Federal computer system. HUD requires your SSN and mother's maiden name to verify your identity before processing the registration form to issue you an FHA Connection user ID. The information is being entered into a secure environment and will be used exclusively for the FHA Connection.
Q11: Does each user need to submit his or her respective e-mail address when registering for the FHA Connection?
A11: An e-mail address is a required entry when registering for the FHA Connection. Applicants may submit either their own personal e-mail address or a group e-mail address that they may be reached through.
Q12: The registration form it asks for a Title II Lender ID, Service Bureau, and Title I Lender ID. What do I enter in these fields?
A12: If you are an employee of the lender, you would not enter an ID in the Service Bureau field, but would enter an ID for the Title II and/or Title I lender ID fields depending if your lending institution is approved for Title II, Title I, or both. Lender IDs consist of ten digits and the same ID would not be used for both Title II and Title I. If you still do not know what to enter for those fields, please contact your company's corporate office and inquire which lender ID(s) they have been issued from HUD.

If you are an employee of a service bureau, do not enter an ID in either the Title II or Title I lender ID fields, but enter your company's five-digit service bureau ID.
Q13: I applied for a user ID just the other day and I received an e-mail message saying that my user ID request was rejected because "ID IS CURRENTLY ACTIVE". What does this mean?
A13: User ID requests are rejected for this reason when you already have an FHA Connection user ID assigned to you. The user ID could have been assigned earlier with your current employer or under a previous lender you worked for. Please contact your FHA Connection Application Coordinator to find out if the active user ID is with your current employer. If they are unable to find a user ID assigned to you or you do not know who your coordinator is, please contact the Home Ownership Center in your region or send an e-mail message to SFADMIN@hud.gov and they will be able determine the lender associated with your active user ID.

If the active user ID is with a previous lender you worked for, please contact the FHA Connection Application Coordinator with that lending institution to request that they terminate the user ID assigned to you. If you are unable to reach them, please contact the Home Ownership Center in your region or send an e-mail message to SFADMIN@hud.gov requesting the termination of your active user ID.
Q14: I applied for an FHA Connection user ID just the other day and I received an e-mail message saying that my user ID request was rejected because of "REINSTATE NOT ALLOWED BY THIS PROCESS". How do I get an FHA Connection user ID reinstated?
A14: When you had an FHA Connection user ID with a company, but it was terminated, please contact the Home Ownership Center in your region or send an e-mail message to SFADMIN@hud.gov requesting that they reinstate your terminated user ID. Please have the terminated user ID handy because it will be needed to reinstate the user ID. If you send an e-mail, also include your name, work phone number, and branch's lender ID in addition to the terminated user ID so they will have all the information they need to reinstate the user ID for you.

If you do not know what your terminated user ID is, please contact your FHA Connection Application Coordinator first and ask them to retrieve the terminated user ID assigned to you so you will be able to provide the ID when you are asked for it. If you do not know who that person is, please refer to the question "I do not know who my FHA Connection Application Coordinator is. How can I find out who that is and how to contact them?" in the FHA Connection General Questions section of the Frequently Asked Questions.
Q15: I applied for an FHA Connection Application Coordinator ID more then two weeks ago. At that time I received an e-mail confirmation that it would be mailed to our company's CEO. To date, my company's CEO has not received any information regarding my registration or user ID.
A15: Please check to make sure that HUD has the correct address on file to mail the letter to by using the CEO Mailing Address page. If the address is incorrect, please refer to the answer to the question "The CEO's mailing address is incorrect, how do I get the address updated to the correct address?"

If the address is correct or you had the address updated, then please contact the Home Ownership Center in your region or send an e-mail message to SFADMIN@hud.gov and request that a new letter be sent to your company's CEO. When calling or sending an e-mail message, please provide your name and company's ten-digit lender ID so they will be able to request another letter be sent to your company's CEO with your FHA Connection user ID. Allow ten days for the letter's delivery.
Q16: I received an e-mail message saying I was assigned a standard user ID. How do I receive my ID?
A16: Standard user IDs must be retrieved by an FHA Connection Application Coordinator in your company. Please contact them to request that they retrieve the user ID for you. If you do not know who that person is, please refer to the question "I do not know who my FHA Connection Application Coordinator is. How can I find out who that is and how to contact them?" in the FHA Connection General Questions section of the Frequently Asked Questions for instructions on how to find out who that is.
Q17: I applied for an FHA Connection user ID, but I never received an e-mail message to inform me if a user ID was assigned or not. How can I find out if an FHA Connection user ID was assigned or not?
A17: The e-mail messages are sent to the e-mail address that was entered in the e-mail Address field on the registration form. A mistake may have been made when entering the e-mail address resulting in the e-mail message being sent to an incorrect address. Please contact the Home Ownership Center in your region or send an e-mail message to SFADMIN@hud.gov and they will be able to determine if you were assigned a user ID or not. Please provide your name and company's ten digit lender ID when calling or sending an e-mail message so they may look to see if a user ID was assigned.
Q18: Why have I had difficulty connecting to the FHA Connection sign-on site https://entp.hud.gov/clas?
A18: There are several possible reason why you may not be able to access the FHA Connection from a specific computer. Below are only a few possible causes:
  1. Verify that you are connected to the Internet. This may sound obvious, but is sometimes overlooked.
  2. Verify that you are entering the address correctly, specifically that you are typing "https" and not just "http" and that you are typing it in lower case. If you enter the address incorrectly, the browser will try to connect to the wrong address.
  3. Verify that you are using a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) compliant browser. An SSL-compliant browser is needed because the FHA Connection is a secure web site. This is usually no longer the case since the recent versions of Netscape's browser and Microsoft Internet Explorer are SSL-compliant.
  4. Verify with your Internet provider that the proxy server supports secure transactions. Sometimes they restrict access to specific protocols and they may overlook the https protocol.
Q19: I have received my FHA Connection user ID, but am unable to sign on to the FHA Connection.
A19: To log onto the FHA Connection after receiving your user ID, complete the following steps:
  1. Click the Sign On button on the FHA Connection homepage.
  2. In the dialog box that appears, enter your user ID (typically the letter "M" followed by five characters) in the Username field and enter the password provided on the registration form in the Password field. Remember, the password is case sensitive.
  3. If you are still unable to access the FHA Connection, the most likely cause of the problem is that the password entered is not the correct one. Please follow the directions in the answer to the question "I have forgotten my password. How can I get the password reset? "
Q20: I signed on, but it is prompting me to change my password because it expired. It is not accepting my current password. What can be done to resolve this problem?
A20: The password is case sensitive, so please make sure that you are entering the password in the same case as you did when you signed on. If your browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer and you are using its "Save Password" feature, then try entering the password with the Cap Lock key on and then off. If the password is still not accepted, then please refer to the question "I have forgotten my password. How can I get the password reset?" If this happens often, we suggest that if you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer and you are using the "Save Password" feature, that you disable it. We believe if a user enters their password each time they access the FHA Connection, they will be more likely to remember the password.
Q21: I signed on, but it is prompting me to change my password because it expired. When I try to change the password I get an error saying, "PASSWORD MUST BE EXACTLY 6 CHARACTERS" or "PASSWORD MUST HAVE AT LEAST ONE NUMERIC CHARACTER". Why am I getting this error?
A21: The password can consist of alphabetic and numeric characters, must be six characters exactly, and at least one of the characters must be a numeric character. What you are changing the password to must comply with these requirements. Examples of valid passwords would be abcde1, abcd12, 1abcde, and 123456. Examples of invalid passwords would be abcdef because it does not contain a numeric character, abcdef1 because it has more then six characters, and abcd1 because it has less then six characters.
Q22: I have forgotten my password. How can I get the password reset?
A22: Starting May 28, 2002, FHA Connection Application Coordinators were given the ability to reset on their user's FHA Connection user IDs. If you are a standard user, please contact your FHA Connection Application Coordinator and ask them to reset the password on your FHA Connection user ID. If you do not know who your FHA Connection Application Coordinator is, please refer to the question "I do not know who my FHA Connection Application Coordinator is. How can I find out who that is and how to contact them?" in the FHA Connection General Questions section of the Frequently Asked Questions.

If you are an FHA Connection Application Coordinator, then please contact Home Ownership Center in your region or send an e-mail message to SFADMIN@hud.gov and they will assist you with getting the password reset on your FHA Connection user ID.
Q23: The password on my user ID was reset by my coordinator, but I am still unable to sign on. What is wrong?
A23: When a coordinator or HUD reset a password on an FHA Connecton user ID, it is reset to the last six digits of the person's social security number. If you are still unable to sign on using the last six digits of your social security number, please contact the Home Ownership Center in your region or send an e-mail message to SFADMIN@hud.gov and and ask them to check the social security number listed on your FHA Connection user ID.
Q24: When I applied for a user ID for the FHA Connection I applied for a Standard User ID. I know need to be set up as an Application Coordinator. How would I make this change?
A24: Changes to the type of user IDs must be made by HUD. Therefore, please contact the Home Ownership Center in your region or send an e-mail message to SFADMIN@hud.gov and ask them to change your user ID from a Standard user ID to an Application Coordinator.