I went through something similar about 8 months ago - got fired for attendance due to a combination of health issues and transportation problems. The good news is that NYS Department of Labor approved my claim after about 4 weeks of review. During the phone interview, I explained that my absences weren't intentional misconduct but rather circumstances beyond my control. They seemed to understand the difference between willful violations and genuine hardships. Make sure to keep all your medical documentation and any emails or texts with your employer about your attendance issues. Also, when you file, emphasize that you never abandoned your job - you were terminated. That distinction matters a lot in their decision process.

I'm in a really similar boat right now - got let go last month for attendance issues that were mostly due to health problems and my car breaking down constantly. Reading through everyone's experiences here is giving me hope that I might actually qualify for benefits. @Jacinda Yu your story especially resonates with me since it sounds like you had the exact same mix of health and transportation issues. I've been hesitating to file because I was worried they'd automatically deny anyone fired for attendance, but it sounds like they actually look at the circumstances. Going to gather up all my medical records and start the application process this week. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences!

Just a quick update check - were you able to get through to anyone? Did any of the suggestions help? The interstate claims idea sounds most promising given your situation.

Just wanted to follow up - any luck? The interstate claims issue definitely sounds like what's happening. When I used Claimyr, the agent told me interstate claims are taking forever right now because some states are slow to verify employment.

This is such a common and frustrating issue with NY unemployment! I went through something similar a few months ago where my card showed $0 even though payments were marked as "released" online. In my case, it turned out they had automatically set up direct deposit to my old checking account from a previous claim, even though I specifically requested the debit card this time. The old account was closed so the payments just bounced around in limbo. I had to call multiple times to get them to cancel the direct deposit and reissue everything to the card. The whole process took about 10 days but I did eventually get all my back payments. My advice: don't wait for it to magically fix itself - you need to speak with an agent to figure out exactly where your money went. Try calling right at 8am when they open, or if you can't get through after a few days, that claimyr service people mentioned might be worth trying. Also check your online account thoroughly for any hidden notifications or action items that might explain the hold. Good luck!

This happened to me about 6 weeks ago and it was absolutely terrifying! My card came with zero balance even though my portal showed over $2,000 in released payments. I was panicking because my car payment was due and I had literally $12 in my checking account. After reading through forums like this one, I realized it's unfortunately super common with NY unemployment. I tried calling the regular number for almost a week straight - either busy signals or I'd wait on hold for 2+ hours just to get disconnected. Finally used that claimyr service that everyone mentions here and got through to an agent in about an hour. Turns out there was some kind of "security review" on my account that blocked the card payments, but they never sent me any notification about it. The agent was able to clear it immediately and told me the funds would appear within 1-2 business days. Everything showed up exactly when she said it would. I know it's scary when you're waiting for money you desperately need, but don't give up - there are real people who can fix this, you just have to find a way to reach them!

The whole unemployment system is just another way for the government to control businesses if you ask me. Making employers pay all these taxes and then bureaucrats decide who gets benefits and who doesn't. At least you're getting something back but the red tape is ridiculous.

Thanks for all the detailed explanations! As someone new to this, it's really helpful to understand that the money comes from employer contributions rather than my own paycheck deductions. I was actually feeling guilty about collecting benefits, thinking I was somehow taking money I hadn't earned or contributed to. Knowing that my previous employers already paid into this system based on having me as an employee makes me feel more comfortable about using the benefits while I search for new work. The experience rating system also makes a lot of sense - it creates incentives for companies to think twice before laying people off unnecessarily.

I just went through this same nightmare last week! What finally worked for me was a combination of almost everything mentioned here, but I want to add one more tip that was crucial - make sure you're not running any VPN software. I had my VPN on for work and it was causing the uploads to fail every time. Once I disconnected it and tried again at 6 AM with all the other suggestions (Chrome incognito, simple filenames, compressed PDFs under 1MB, one at a time), everything went through smoothly. Also, I kept screenshots of each successful upload confirmation just in case I needed proof later. The whole system is absolutely broken but these workarounds do help. Good luck Fatima - you've got great advice here!

I've been following this thread closely since I'm dealing with the same upload nightmares! Reading everyone's solutions has given me hope that there's actually a way through this mess. I want to add one more tip that helped me yesterday - if you're on Windows, try right-clicking on your browser icon and selecting "Run as administrator" before starting the upload process. I'm not sure why this makes a difference, but it seemed to help with the timeout issues. Also, I noticed that if you have Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive syncing in the background, it can sometimes interfere with uploads. Try pausing cloud sync temporarily while you're uploading documents. Between all the amazing advice here (early morning uploads, Chrome incognito, simple filenames, compressed PDFs, VPN off, one file at a time) and these additional tweaks, hopefully we can all get past the NYS system's quirks. This community is incredible - thank you everyone for sharing your hard-won knowledge!