The NYS Department of Labor system is completely broken. I've been fighting with them for months over a simple address change and they act like it's rocket science. They probably lost your paperwork or some incompetent clerk made an error. The whole system needs to be rebuilt from scratch. Meanwhile people are losing their homes because these bureaucrats can't do their jobs properly!

To follow up on the adjudication timeline - retail store closures sometimes trigger additional verification because they want to make sure it wasn't due to performance issues or violations of company policy. The good news is that once it's approved, you'll receive all your retroactive payments from the date you first became eligible. Keep filing your weekly claims even though they show $0 - this preserves your benefit weeks for when the approval comes through.

The whole system is a joke honestly. I filed 2 months ago and STILL haven't gotten a penny. My claim has been stuck in some kind of review process and nobody can tell me why. Meanwhile my landlord doesn't care that the state can't get their act together.

Mine was approved in exactly 8 days but I think I got lucky. Had all my documentation ready and my previous employer didn't fight it. The key is being really careful when you fill out the application - any mistakes can cause delays.

If your claim is showing as pending for 2 weeks, that's likely an adjudication issue that's completely separate from whatever weird question you encountered. You should focus on getting through to an actual NYS Department of Labor representative to check your claim status. The phone lines are swamped but there are services like claimyr.com that can help you get through faster - they have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works.

lol the great depression question threw me off too when i was doing some training thing last month. but yeah thats not part of regular ui filing at all

I had trouble getting through to NYS Department of Labor when I had questions about reporting work. If you need to speak with someone about your specific situation, I found claimyr.com really helpful. They have a service that gets you through to actual NYS Department of Labor agents instead of waiting on hold forever. There's a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Saved me hours of calling.

Make sure you keep documenting your job search efforts until you actually start working! NYS Department of Labor still requires proof of job searches for the weeks you're claiming benefits, even if you know you have a job starting soon.

same boat as OP, filed my claim yesterday and already anxious about when I'll see money. bills don't wait for government bureaucracy

My timeline was: Filed on Tuesday, approved Friday, filed first weekly claim Sunday, got my debit card the following Wednesday, first payment hit Thursday. So about 9 days total but that was without any complications. Your mileage may vary depending on if NYS Department of Labor needs to verify anything with your employer.