Is TN qualify for Unemployment Insurance?

I work 6 Years in New Jersey with TN status, but laid-off now. before coming to US, I have another 6 to 7 years employment history in Toronto ON, I will move back to Canada very soon, but will go to Vancouver for family reason. Is anyone know if I still qualify for unemployment benefits, and if I do, which government agency I should apply for. New Jersey? Ontario? or BC. ~20 years worked, first time but in a delicate situation.

Thanks in advance!

http://www1.servicecanada.gc.ca/en/ei/t ... l#eligible

Peter,
just wondering if you had any luck with claiming benefits. I am in the same situation, any insight into how you went ahead with the claim would be really appreciated.

According to Service Canada website:

American Unemployment Insurance benefits may be paid to you if your last employment was in the United States and you now reside in Canada. If you also had previous employment in Canada, you may be able to file a claim for Canadian EI benefits instead. You may be able to receive benefits from either Canada or the United States but not both at the same time.


How to file a claim for American Unemployment Insurance benefits:

To file a claim for American Unemployment Insurance benefits, you must contact the Telephone Information Service or go to your Service Canada Centre, you will be asked to give your name, address, phone number, Social Insurance Number (SIN) and Social Security Number (SSN) along with the name of the State from which you want to claim benefits. Depending on the State in which you last worked you may be able to file a claim directly with the State via the Internet or by phone. If the State does not accept claims via the Internet or by phone, information will be forwarded to a designated office responsible for handling such claims based on where you reside in Canada. You may also contact the designated Service Canada Centre directly.

You must provide proof that your employment in the United States was authorized as per American immigration regulations and that you are available for and actively seeking work in Canada. If you are not a Canadian resident you will be asked for proof that you are authorized to work in Canada.

joe-blo is largely wrong. You do NOT have to deal with Service Canada or any other Canadian agency to collect American UI in a State that will take your claim directly. You would only need to go through Service Canada if the State you last worked in was not be able to proces your claim directly. But most States will take your claim by phone or by a web form, so Service Canada does not have to be involved at all.

The reason why the US will pay UI to Canadians is because of the Agreement Respecting Unemployment Insurance of 1941 (which has been amended a ton of times since). It supposedly integrates both country's UI systems. But, in reality, it just makes one country pay benefits to the nationals of the other country upon return to their country. Therefore, you must be in Canada when you make your claim. This is partly because you are legally entitled to work in Canada, but not in the US anymore, and you are looking for work. However, you can still look for work in the US, but you have to be in Canada.

UI in the US is a federal program run by the states. The rules are about the same across the different states. To qualify you need to have worked for four quarters (i.e., about a year) ending six months before your claim for UI. So if you have only worked in the US the last four quarters, then you will have to wait six months to make your claim for UI. If you worked there a year and a half, you could file anytime within the six months (or so) after you got laid off. If you worked in the US for less than one year, you may still qualify if you worked at least a little in each of the four quarters prior to your claim (e.g., you worked 7 months, including 15 days or so in the first and last quarter of your claim).

The amount of your benefits is determined by the highest earning two quarters of the qualifying four quarters. For most TN-1 workers, one will likely qualify for the max amount very easily. However, if you do not qualify for the max with your first four quarters (of the six quarters you had upon your layoff), and you earned more in the recent two quarters, it may be worth it to delay filing to include the last two quarters into your qualifying period.

To apply, I suggest you call in your claim by phone. Do not use the web form. This is because as a Canadian, your case may not be all that standard and it will likely raise flags in the computer system that will withhold your payments until you have resolved those alerts. An operator on the phone is likely to be very helpful and to manage your application through the system so it goes smoothly. They MAY require you to show that you were working legally in the US. For that just make a photocopy of the page in your passport with your picture and personal info, and of the page with the TN-1 stamp or the i-94 card. To make your application on the phone you will just need to provide your SSN (they do not care or know about your SIN), the name of your employer in the US (though they already have that info in their system), and your address in Canada. They will also ask you about your immigration status in the US whileou were working there and the rasons why your employment ended.

Generally speaking you qualify for American UI when you loose your job of no fault on your own, such as:

- You got laid off.
- Immigration refuses to issue another TN-1 to you.
- You completed the term of your employment (in TN-1 visas the term of your employment is the term of the TN-1).
- Or if you were fired, but your employer did not follow the proper procedures to fire you (e.g., without giving you the proper notices and the opportunity to rectify your alleged deficiencies).

If they put a hold on your payments (e.g., becaue they want to verify your immigration status in the US when you worked there, or because they want to verify how the separation from your work hapenned), do not be discouraged. Just keep on making your weekly claims. You can make your weekly claims online (that is ok, once your original claim for UI was done on the phone), or by phone in some states you may make them by mail also. Those things will be resolved and they will pay you for all the weeks you filed for. If you stop filing your weekly claims, they may not even bother looking at your outstanding issues and you may never see your money, so keep on filing your weekly claims. However, likely, the money will be released from the begining of your claim.

The payment can either be a direct payment to your US bank account, or a check mailed to you in Canada with the amount in US dollars.

Also, just like any American, you are eligible for UI extensions beyond the initial UI period, if that should be necessary.

One final note, you are ENTITLED to your UI money. Do not feel guilty or ashamed for filing for UI. You paid for it, just like you paid for medical or any other insurance. You have made a huge commitment to go work in the US. You probaly quit your job in Canada, separated yourself from your familiar surroundings, and took up a job in a foreign country on a temporary work visa thatis granted or denied at the whim of a US border officer. You are the one who took all the risks. Now you find yourself not legally allowed to stay in the US, forced to come back to Canada, probably at your own expense, unemployed in the middle of a depression. You do not have many rights left in the US, your right to collect UI while you are unemployed and looking for work is the only right you have left in the US.

thanks for the really informative post. Do you know if a H1B worker qualifies for UI as well or is it only for TN ?

The Agreement Respecting Unemployment Insurance was written half a century before NAFTA and TN-1 visas. It applies to all Canadian Citizens who have legally worked in the US and are now back in Canada, regardless of what visa they were on. The same applies to Americans who have legally worked in Canada and go back to the US.

UI in the US is a federal program run by the states. The rules are about the same across the different states. To qualify you need to have worked for four quarters (i.e., about a year) ending six months before your claim for UI.

The rules are similar but not identical across the different states. You do NOT have to have worked for four quarters to qualify for UI. The base period covers a four-quarter period however you often need to have had earnings in only ONE of those quarters to qualify. For example in California, if you were to file right now, the base period would be the four quarters of 2008 (ie calendar year 2008). However, you would qualify for the maximum benefit ($450/wk) if your earnings in any ONE of those quarters were at least $11675. Note that it is NOT necessary to have earnings in more than one quarter. It is therefore possible to have worked only briefly and still qualify--however in such cases there is usually in effect a waiting period until the wages move far enough in the past to qualify. If you have worked for long enough you would qualify immediately after being laid off.

You are right about the different requirements. CA's system sounds too good to be true almost. Reading their guide online ( page 4 of http://www.edd.ca.gov/pdf_pub_ctr/de1275a.pdf ) it says:

To establish a valid claim, you must have earned at least (1)
$1300 in one quarter of your base period, or (2) at least $900 in
your highest quarter and a total of 1.25 times your high quarter
earnings in the four quarters of your base period.

That is a much better social program than Canadian EI. One would never have a valid claim in Canada while putting in so little time, or such low earnings, at work. In Canada one has to put in a whole 6 months of labour regardless of how much money one made, to be eligible at all.