A three-month gap is a small, fixable item, and it should never surface for the first time at the closing table. For scale: FHA's extended-absence rule only kicks in when a gap runs six months or longer, and even then the income works if you have been back in the same line of work for at least six months when the FHA case number is assigned and you had a two-year work history before the absence. A three-month gap does not even trigger that rule. What underwriting typically wants is a short written letter of explanation with the dates and the reason. We closed a loan for a restaurant server whose income dropped hard during the pandemic closures, far below a normal year, and a clear letter of explanation laying out the timeline was all it took. The timing is the part to press on. On a normal 30-day escrow, underwriting surfaces and resolves something like this in the first week or so, and a condition appearing on closing day often signals a bigger, undisclosed issue in the file. Write the honest letter, hand it to your loan officer, and ask directly whether anything else is actually holding up the closing. If a plain explanation does not clear it, the real holdup is what you need to find out.