How to check your unemployment status with NYS Department of Labor - need help accessing claim info
I filed my initial unemployment claim about 2 weeks ago but I'm having trouble figuring out how to actually check the status of my claim through the NYS Department of Labor system. I've been trying to log into my.ny.gov but when I get to the unemployment section it just shows basic info and doesn't tell me if my claim is approved, pending, or what. Is there a specific place I should be looking? I'm worried something went wrong with my application since I haven't received any confirmation emails or letters yet.
12 comments


Gabrielle Dubois
You'll want to log into your my.ny.gov account and navigate to the unemployment services section. Once you're in there, look for 'View Claim Status' or 'Claim Summary' - it should show you whether your claim is pending, approved, or if there are any issues that need resolution. The status will typically show as 'adjudication in progress' if they're still reviewing your claim, which is normal for new applications.
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Dmitri Volkov
•Thanks! I found the claim summary page but it just says 'claim filed' with no other details. Should I be worried that it doesn't show more information?
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Tyrone Johnson
It can take up to 3-4 weeks for NYS Department of Labor to fully process a new claim, especially if they need to verify your employment history. Check your online account daily but don't panic if it stays at 'claim filed' for a while. You should also be filing your weekly claims even while the initial claim is processing - that's really important or you could lose benefits for those weeks.
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Ingrid Larsson
•Wait I thought you couldn't file weekly claims until your initial claim was approved?? I've been waiting to start filing them!
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Tyrone Johnson
•No you definitely need to start filing weekly claims right away! Even if your initial claim is still processing, you have to file for each week you want benefits. Log into my.ny.gov and look for the weekly claim certification section.
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Carlos Mendoza
Ugh the NYS Department of Labor online system is so confusing. I've been dealing with this for months and half the time I can't even get through on the phone to talk to someone. The automated system just hangs up on you after being on hold forever.
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Zainab Mahmoud
•I actually found a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get through to an actual NYS Department of Labor agent when I was stuck in adjudication limbo. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Saved me weeks of trying to call myself and actually getting hung up on constantly.
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Carlos Mendoza
•That actually sounds helpful - I'll check it out. At this point I'm willing to try anything to get some answers about my claim status.
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Ava Williams
also make sure you check your messages in the my.ny.gov system regularly!! sometimes they send requests for additional documents or information there and if you miss them it can delay your claim processing even more
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Dmitri Volkov
•Good point! I just checked and there's actually a message asking for my last pay stub. No wonder my claim hasn't moved forward yet.
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Harmony Love
Pro tip: set up notifications in your my.ny.gov account so you get alerts when there are updates to your claim or new messages. I missed a document request for almost a week because I wasn't checking regularly enough. Also, if you're having trouble with the website, try accessing it early in the morning (like 6-7 AM) when there's less traffic - the system seems to work better then. Keep all your documents ready to upload as PDFs because they'll likely ask for multiple things throughout the process.
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KingKongZilla
•This is really helpful advice! I had no idea you could set up notifications - that would have saved me so much stress. The early morning tip is gold too, I've been trying to access the site during lunch breaks and it's always slow. Quick question though - when you say keep documents ready as PDFs, do you know what the file size limits are? I have some pay stubs that are pretty large scanned files and I'm worried they might not upload properly.
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