Just wanted to add that you should expect to possibly wait a while for your first payment even after everything is approved. My experience with NYS Department of Labor was that it took about 3 weeks from when I filed until I got my first deposit, and that was without any complications. Make sure you have some savings to cover expenses during that waiting period.

One thing to keep in mind is that you should save all the confirmation numbers and documents from your filing process. NYS Department of Labor will ask for these if there are any questions about your claim later. Also, if you were laid off or terminated, make sure you have your employer's information handy including their unemployment insurance account number if possible - this can speed up the verification process. And don't panic if you don't hear back immediately, the system is pretty backed up but as long as you keep filing those weekly claims you should be fine.

yeah same boat here, filed last sunday and still nothing in my account. this is so stressful when you have bills due

I feel your pain @Sofia Torres - the waiting is the worst part! Just went through this myself a couple months ago. One thing that helped me was setting up text alerts through the my.ny.gov portal so I got notifications when my payment status changed. Also, if you haven't already, double check that your direct deposit info is correct in your profile - I had a friend whose payments got delayed because there was a typo in her routing number. The first payment really does take longer than the rest, but once it starts flowing it gets more predictable. Hang in there!

To update everyone on this thread: As of April 2025, NYSDOL processes payment batches on Tuesdays and Fridays. If your certification is processed after the Tuesday batch, you'll be in Friday's batch. Then your bank's processing time adds 1-3 business days depending on the financial institution. For the original poster, since you certified on Sunday and it's now Thursday, your payment was likely included in Tuesday's batch and should arrive by Friday or Monday at the latest, assuming no holds on your account.

I went through this exact same process back in February 2025 and can relate to the stress! For me, it took exactly 6 business days from certification to seeing the money in my account. The key thing that helped my anxiety was setting up text alerts through my bank so I'd know the moment the deposit hit instead of constantly checking my balance. Also, once you get that first payment, the weekly ones come much faster - usually 2-3 days max. Hang in there, it's coming!

my brother works in the ny unemployment office (not IT but adjacent) and he says they're well aware of the work search form issues. internal memo went out months ago but fixing it is "not priority" because it doesn't affect their metrics 🙄 classic government efficiency at work

Just went through this nightmare myself last month! The form glitch cost me 3 weeks of benefits because they said I wasn't meeting work search requirements. What finally worked for me was doing exactly what @Natasha Kuznetsova suggested - fill everything EXCEPT company name/website, save, then go back and edit to add those fields. Also learned the hard way to always log your activities in multiple places. I keep a Google Sheet backup now with timestamps and screenshots. The system is clearly broken but at least there are workarounds. Thanks everyone for sharing your solutions - this thread should be pinned for other people dealing with this mess!

Just wanted to chime in as someone who's been through this nightmare before. The NY unemployment system is absolutely broken and it's infuriating how they put all the burden on us to figure out what's wrong. I had payments stuck for 6 weeks last year because of some mysterious "fraud prevention" flag that I was never notified about. The worst part is how helpless you feel when you can't reach anyone and your bills are piling up. Really glad to see Miguel got his resolved - that gives me hope that there are still real people working there who can actually fix things when you can reach them. For anyone else dealing with this, document everything (screenshots, call logs, etc.) and don't give up. The system is designed to wear you down but persistence does eventually pay off.

This is such a helpful thread - I'm dealing with almost the exact same situation right now! Filed in early June, first few payments came through fine, but now I've been stuck on pending for 2 weeks with zero communication from NYSDOL. It's so frustrating how the burden is completely on us to figure out what's wrong when they have all our contact information. Reading about Miguel's identity verification flag that never triggered a notification is both relieving (there might be a fixable issue) and infuriating (how are we supposed to know?). Definitely going to try the Claimyr service - at this point $20 to actually talk to a human seems like a bargain compared to the stress of calling 50+ times. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences, it really helps to know we're not alone in this mess!