Something I’ve wondered: Suppose I got laid off from my job very soon (I work for a university in Texas, in case the occupation/state makes any difference) and decided to travel abroad for a few months (but still applying online for jobs in America the whole time, since I understand one condition of taking unemployment money is that you have to be constantly applying for work.) What effect would being abroad have on my unemployment - would it make me ineligible?
The unemployment bureau occasionally randomly requires you to come in for either an in-person interview or a phone interview. The in-person interviews are pretty rare now days. But I somehow doubt that the staff of a typical state agency is allowed to make international phone calls, so you should at least arrange to have a US number forwarded to where you are.
Also being unavailable for an in-person job interview, should one be offered and should they find out, would be grounds to terminate your benefits. But I don’t know how they would find out. And if your former employer offers your old job back and your reply is “I’d love to, but it will take me a week to climb down from this mountain and fly back,” that could also be a problem.
In addition to applying for work, you have to be available to work. I realize they can’t always catch you and people have ways to beat the system.
In 2016 I did pretty much what the OP described. I got laid off from my previous job, applied for unemployment, then went and traveled in East Africa for about a month, then started applying for jobs again when I returned. I was indeed ineligible to collect unemployment during the time I was traveling, due to the requirement that I be “available to work”. Basically I collected it for a while, put it on hold while I was traveling, then started collecting it again when I returned.
It probably works differently in each state, but in California you have to submit a document every other week with a bunch of yes/no questions: “Did you look for work?”, “Were you available to work?”, etc. I had planned on just answering “no” to the “available to work” question while I was traveling, but they scheduled one of those phone interviews Alley Dweller mentioned during the time I was traveling. The interviewer called my cell phone, where I had changed the voicemail greeting stating I was traveling, and canceled my unemployment based on that. But I reapplied when I returned and they reinstated my benefits, no questions asked.
Must you be looking for and available for work in your home state? If you’re unemployed in TX and get a job offer interview in Arizona, can you go there to talk to them? Is Mexico different?
Many states have temporarily waived the requirement that you must be actively seeking work to claim benefits. Texas has not waived that requirement.
From what I remember, some domestic travel is allowed, depending on the purpose. You can’t just go off and take a two week vacation and keep collecting benefits, but I believe some travel for things like a job interview out of state, family emergencies, and that sort of thing are allowed. International travel is pretty much not allowed while collecting benefits. I’m not sure how they’d handle it if you wanted to do something like attend a relative’s funeral in Mexico.
Of course that’s all pretty much moot right now, since we’re not supposed to travel during the COVID-19 pandemic anyway. I would guess companies are doing interviews over video conferencing or something like that now.
I was unemployed and collecting unemployment benefits while I got married the second time. We went on honeymoon to Disney World (wedding guests paid for the trip) for a week. I was able to continue to apply for jobs online during the trip and filled out my paperwork online. It didn’t matter that I was literally on the opposite corner of the country from where I was collecting (Washington State).
My state does require you to be seeking work to collect unemployment, and I was legitimately trying to do so. I also kept my phone handy in case someone called me to set up an interview when I got back home (or if they wanted to interview me on the phone or video chat). Nobody called me though.
I wasn’t “abroad” but I was much farther away geographically than if I, say, hopped north into Canada.
In Massachusetts, you cannot collect unemployment if you leave the country. Specifically, you have to verify your claim to collect for each week, and one of the questions is “Were you outside the USA during the week?” If you do leave, (and admit to it), your claim is closed and you have to submit a new claim.
As usual there are 50 states and 50 answers, because unemployment insurance goes through the state.
In my state if your lay-off is seen as temporary and you are expected to be recalled to your job, the requirement to search for another job is waived. I think there is a time limit and it depends upon your employer stating that they expect you to be returning once the short term lay off is over.
You are able to collect if you move to another state, the other state takes over. However you may receive a different amount depending on the new state.