How long does it take for NYS Department of Labor unemployment check to come in the mail?

Usually takes about 7-10 business days from when your weekly claim is processed for the check to arrive in the mail. However, if this is your first payment after approval, it might take a bit longer - sometimes up to 2 weeks. You can check the payment status on your my.ny.gov account under the payment history section.

mine took forever the first time, like almost 3 weeks but after that they came pretty regularly every week

If you're in a real bind waiting for the mail, you might want to try calling NYS Department of Labor to see if they can expedite it or give you more specific timing. I know their phone lines are usually swamped, but I recently found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helps you actually get through to an agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Saved me hours of busy signals when I needed to check on a delayed payment.

The NYS Department of Labor mail system is absolutely ridiculous. They act like we're asking for charity when we're just trying to get benefits we paid into. I've had checks take anywhere from 5 days to 3 weeks with NO explanation for the variation. And don't even get me started on how they handle holidays - everything gets delayed even more.

Just want to say hang in there - I know the waiting is stressful especially when you have bills due. Once the system gets going with your payments they usually become more predictable.

I went through this same situation a few months ago and the waiting is absolutely nerve-wracking when you're counting on that money. In my experience, the first payment after approval typically takes 10-14 business days to arrive by mail. Since you filed your weekly claim on Sunday and it shows as processed, you're probably looking at getting the check sometime next week if you're lucky, or the week after more realistically. One thing that helped me track it better was setting up text alerts through my.ny.gov - at least then you know exactly when they say it's been mailed out. The good news is that once you get into the rhythm, subsequent checks usually come much more consistently.