- Bankruptcy: You must prove to a bankruptcy judge that repaying your loans would be an undue hardship.
- Income-Based Repayment: You must make 25 years of eligible payments or 300 payments under the income-based repayment (IBR) program
- Income-Contingent Repayment: You must make 25 years of eligible payments or 300 payments under the income-contingent repayment (ICR) program.
- Pay As You Earn Forgiveness: You must be a new Direct Loan borrower as of October 1, 2007, with a disbursement made after October 1, 2011.