How to know if unemployment was approved - Washington ESD claim status confusion

Check your SecureAccess Washington account under 'Correspondence' - that's where they put important notices. Also look for any monetary determination letter that shows your benefit amount.

If your claim was approved you should have received a monetary determination in your online account within 7-10 business days. This letter tells you your weekly benefit amount and how many weeks you're eligible for. Without this letter, your claim might still be under review.

I had the same problem trying to reach Washington ESD by phone - spent literally hours on hold just to get hung up on. Finally found this service called Claimyr that actually got me through to an agent in about 15 minutes. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ and their website is claimyr.com. Saved me so much time and frustration.

WASHINGTON ESD IS THE WORST. I've been waiting 3 WEEKS just to find out if my claim is approved and every time I call I get the runaround. Their online system is confusing and doesn't tell you anything useful. How is this acceptable in 2025??

Here's what to look for: 1) Monetary determination letter showing your benefit amount 2) Any requests for additional information or documents 3) Your claim status should change from 'processed' to 'active' once approved 4) You'll be able to file weekly claims without getting error messages. If none of these have happened after 2 weeks, your claim likely needs manual review.

Just want to add - don't skip filing your weekly claims even if you're not sure about approval status. You can always file them and if there's an issue, Washington ESD will let you know. It's worse to miss filing deadlines.

The easiest way is to just try filing your weekly claim. If your account lets you complete it without errors, your claim is approved. If you get blocked or error messages, then something needs to be resolved first.

I'm in the exact same situation! Filed 8 days ago and still no clear answer. The waiting is killing me because I need to know for budgeting purposes.

One more thing - check your email including spam folder. Washington ESD sometimes sends notifications there that people miss. Also make sure your contact info is updated in your account.

The monetary determination letter is key - it will show your weekly benefit amount, total available benefits, and benefit year dates. Without this document, your claim isn't fully approved even if the status looks processed.

When I was dealing with this same issue, I used Claimyr to get through to Washington ESD and found out my claim was stuck because they needed to verify my identity. The agent was able to tell me exactly what documents to upload. Saved me weeks of wondering.

honestly the whole system is confusing, took me forever to figure out where everything was in my account when I first filed

If you're really anxious about it, the surest way is to call and ask an agent directly. Yes the wait times are terrible but at least you'll get a definitive answer about your claim status.

Pro tip: if you can successfully file your first weekly claim without any error messages, your initial claim was approved. The system won't let you file ongoing claims if your initial application wasn't approved first.

I remember being so stressed about this same thing. Turns out my claim was approved but I just didn't know where to look for the confirmation. The system should email you when the monetary determination is ready.

Last resort if nothing else works - try reaching out through the 'Ask a Question' feature in your online account. Takes longer than a phone call but sometimes you get better answers that way.

The whole approval process is way more confusing than it needs to be. You'd think they'd just send a clear 'APPROVED' or 'DENIED' message but instead you have to piece it together from different parts of your account.

Update us when you figure it out! I'm sure other people are wondering about the same thing with their claims.