One more important thing - if you're planning to use your GI Bill for education after discharge, be aware that you generally can't receive both full-time student benefits and unemployment at the same time in Washington. You'll need to report your school attendance and any VA education benefits when filing weekly claims. Also, make sure your job search activities show you're looking for suitable work based on your military skills and experience.

Thank you everyone for all this helpful information! I'm going to wait until April 2nd to file with Washington ESD, make sure I select UCX benefits, and have my DD-214 ready. I'll be careful about listing my platoon sergeant as my supervisor and selecting 'End of Service Contract' as my separation reason. I'm also going to check out WorkSource for their veteran services to help with my job search requirements. If my claim does get stuck in adjudication, I'll keep that Claimyr service in mind. Really appreciate all the advice - this has made the process much clearer!

I had a similarly complex situation last year (pregnancy leave that turned into a layoff), and what finally worked was contacting my state representative's office. They have dedicated staff who can reach out to ESD on your behalf. My claim was resolved within 10 days after my rep's office got involved. Might be worth a try if you're still stuck after trying the direct approach.

Good news! I just checked the ESD adjudication processing times dashboard, and they're currently processing cases from 8-10 weeks ago. So you should be coming up in their queue very soon. Here's the link if you want to check it yourself: https://esd.wa.gov/unemployment/dashboard Be prepared for a possible interview call once your case comes up for review. Have all your documentation organized and ready to discuss the timeline of your LOA, termination date, and when you became available for work again. Good luck!

Another important thing to remember is that if you're starting your job in 2 weeks, you should continue filing your weekly claims until you actually start working. You're still eligible for benefits during that waiting period as long as you're meeting all other requirements (available for work, conducting job search activities, etc.). Once you begin working, file that final claim reporting your employment as others have mentioned. This ensures you receive all benefits you're entitled to while properly closing out your claim.

Yes, technically you need to continue your three job search activities each week until you actually start working. However, if you have a definite job offer with a confirmed start date, you can request to be placed on "standby" status for those final weeks, which would exempt you from job search requirements. You'd need to call ESD to request this, though, and for just two weeks it might be simpler to just do the job search activities.

One more important thing - when ESD tries to verify your employment and can't reach your employer, they'll likely check their wage records from employer tax filings. If the business wasn't properly reporting wages or paying unemployment insurance taxes, you might face additional challenges. In that case, you would need to provide as much personal documentation as possible to prove your employment history and wages. If your claim goes into adjudication for this reason, you'll want to prepare a detailed employment history with: 1. Dates of employment 2. Job title and duties 3. Pay rate and schedule 4. Names of supervisors and coworkers 5. Any performance reviews or other documentation This helps ESD verify that you were legitimately employed there even if the employer's records are incomplete.

Just wanted to check in - were you able to submit your claim with the documentation you have? Remember that you can always amend your claim later if you manage to get additional information. The important thing is to get something submitted ASAP so your claim date is established.

Have you been filing your weekly claims this entire time? Even while waiting for appeal and after winning, you MUST continue filing weekly claims or you won't get paid for those weeks, regardless of eligibility. I've seen many people win appeals but not get full back pay because they stopped filing weekly claims during the appeal process.

Update for anyone following this thread: I talked to the OP privately and they finally got through to ESD using the advice here. Their payment is being processed now and they should receive all back benefits within 48 hours! Sometimes it just takes persistence (and knowing exactly who to ask for).