NYS Department of Labor claim denied - does immigration cause unemployment eligibility issues?
My unemployment claim was just denied by NYS Department of Labor and I'm trying to understand why. I've been working in construction for 8 years, paying into the system, and got laid off last month when the project ended. The denial letter mentions something about work authorization verification but I've had my green card for over a decade. Has anyone else dealt with immigration-related issues affecting their UI benefits? I thought once you're authorized to work, unemployment should be straightforward. Really confused about what's happening with my claim status.
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Sofia Peña
Work authorization shouldn't affect your eligibility if you have a valid green card. NYS Department of Labor sometimes has verification delays in their system. You need to appeal this denial within 30 days and provide documentation of your work authorization status. Make sure you have copies of your green card and employment history ready.
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Hunter Hampton
•Thanks for the info. Should I keep filing my weekly claims while the appeal is processing? Don't want to mess anything up further.
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Aaron Boston
I had a similar issue last year - turned out to be a data entry error on NYS Department of Labor's end where they marked my status wrong in the system. Took 3 weeks to sort out but I eventually got all my back payments.
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Sophia Carter
If you're having trouble reaching NYS Department of Labor agents about this verification issue, I used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get through to someone quickly. There's a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Really helped when I needed to speak to an actual person about my adjudication problems.
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Hunter Hampton
•That sounds helpful - I've been trying to call for days and keep getting disconnected. How quickly were you able to get through?
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Chloe Zhang
ugh the whole system is broken!! they deny claims for the stupidest reasons and then make YOU prove you deserve benefits that you already paid for. immigration has nothing to do with unemployment if youre legally authorized to work
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Brandon Parker
Actually immigration status can affect certain benefit programs but not regular UI if you're work-authorized. The confusion might be that some people mix up different types of assistance. For unemployment insurance, if you worked and paid into the system, your immigration status shouldn't matter as long as you were legally employed.
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Adriana Cohn
•exactly this - I think people confuse UI with other welfare programs that have different rules
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