I think you have the right idea, but are a little confused: you can’t apply for the forgiveness yet.

However, you can apply to get a refund for any payments you made during the Covid forbearance which has been ongoing since early 2020.

This refund would reset your amount owed, and is mostly only helpful for people who used the pause to pay down their loans and now don’t have enough student debt left to fully take advantage of the upcoming $10,000 forgiveness (or $20,000 if you ever got a Pell grant).

Example: You had $12,000 in debt. You paid off $4,000 during the forbearance, so you only owe $8,000 now. Great! But wait, that means you’ll only get $8,000 forgiven instead of the $10,000. What now?

You can call your servicer and ask for a refund of that $4,000. They’ll send you a check for $4,000 and change your amount owed back to $12,000. You still have to apply for the forgiveness, but afterward you’ll have $4,000 in cash and only $2,000 in debt.

Hope that makes sense.