Governor's office escalation not changing my ESD claim status after 3 days - normal wait time?

I did this last month when my claim was stuck in adjudication for 9 weeks!! It took about 5 business days before anything happened but then suddenly I got 3 payments all at once. hang in there

The Governor's office can help expedite but they don't process claims themselves - they just flag your claim for priority review by ESD. In my experience working with unemployment cases, you should typically see movement within 3-7 business days after a Governor's escalation. If nothing happens by next Tuesday, I'd recommend sending a follow-up to the Governor's office with your original case reference number. Also make sure you're still filing your weekly claims even while waiting for the initial determination. Many people stop filing during the wait and that creates even more delays.

Contacting the governors office is USELESS!!! I did that TWICE and nothing happened for weeks. Then I called my state representative's office instead and my claim was fixed in 2 DAYS. Try that instead of waiting for the governors office to do anything.

In addition to the Governor's office, have you tried calling ESD directly? I know it's incredibly difficult to get through their phone lines, but I recently discovered a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get through to an actual ESD agent after weeks of failed attempts. They have a video that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ?si=26TzE_zGms-DODN3 I was in a similar situation with an escalation that seemed to go nowhere, but once I actually spoke to someone at ESD, they were able to tell me exactly what was holding up my claim and fixed it while I was on the phone. Sometimes there's just a small issue they need to clear up to move things forward.

When I contacted the governor's office last year about my claim, it took exactly 6 business days before anything happened. Then I got an email from an ESD supervisor, followed by a phone call the next day. They asked me some additional verification questions and then approved my claim 2 days later. So all in all, it was about 8-9 business days from contacting the governor to getting my claim fixed. Just keep checking your email (including spam folder) because they might reach out for more info before they can move forward with your claim. And definitely keep filing those weekly claims!

There's actually an official expectation for Governor's office referrals that ESD should respond within 5 business days. However, the current backlog means it often takes 7-10 business days for action. Make sure you have a case number from the Governor's office email. If you don't hear anything by next Friday, you should definitely follow up. One thing to note: the Governor's office escalation doesn't necessarily mean your claim will be approved faster - it just means someone will review it promptly and either approve it or tell you why it can't be approved yet. If there are legitimate issues with your claim (employer contest, identity verification needs, etc.), those will still need to be resolved through the normal channels.

i contacted governors office in march waited 2 weeks nothing happend then i called my state senator and they fixed it in 3 days... different offices get different results i think it depends who u get maybe try both?

Has anyone else noticed that ESD tends to process things in batches at the end of the week? When my claim was stuck last year, nothing happened for days and then suddenly on Friday afternoon everything updated at once. Maybe check again tomorrow?

I went through something similar last month and wanted to share what worked for me. After contacting the Governor's office and waiting 6 days with no movement, I decided to also reach out to my state representative. Within 48 hours of contacting the rep's office, I got a call from an ESD supervisor who walked me through exactly what was holding up my claim (turned out to be a simple verification issue that took 5 minutes to resolve over the phone). My advice: give the Governor's escalation until early next week as others have suggested, but also go ahead and contact your state rep's office now as a backup. Having both working on your case simultaneously seemed to really speed things up for me. You can find your rep at leg.wa.gov/legislature/pages/memberlookup.aspx - just enter your address. Hang in there, and definitely keep filing those weekly claims even while waiting! The system will backpay everything once it's resolved.

I'm in almost the exact same situation! Filed my claim 8 weeks ago and contacted the Governor's office on Tuesday. Still no changes in my account either. Reading through these comments is giving me some hope though - sounds like 5-7 business days is pretty normal for seeing results. I'm also going to take the advice here and contact my state representative as backup. One question for those who had success - did you get any kind of confirmation email or notification when your claim status actually changed, or did you just have to keep checking the portal until you noticed the update?

I'm dealing with a very similar timeline! Contacted the Governor's office on Wednesday after 6 weeks of being stuck in pending status. Based on what everyone is sharing here, it sounds like I should expect to wait until at least next Tuesday before seeing any movement. The advice about contacting your state representative as a backup plan is really smart - I'm definitely going to do that on Monday if I don't see any changes over the weekend. It's reassuring to hear that multiple people have had success with the Governor's escalation, even if it takes a bit longer than we'd all like. Thanks for asking this question @Savannah - this thread has been incredibly helpful for understanding what to expect!

Just wanted to add another data point - I went through the Governor's office route in February and it took exactly 6 business days before I heard anything. Got an email from an ESD case worker asking me to verify some employment dates, and then my claim was approved 3 days after I responded. One thing I learned is that you should save all the email confirmations you got from the Governor's office with your case reference numbers. When I eventually spoke to the ESD supervisor, having those reference numbers ready really helped them locate my case quickly in their system. Also, totally agree with everyone saying to contact your state rep as backup - my neighbor did that route first and got results in 4 days. Sometimes it just depends on which office has better connections with ESD at the moment. Good luck!