Job-seeking benefit: window in which it can be drawn
It runs from the day after leaving, not from the day you apply, so time spent sorting out something else is time taken off the benefit rather than added before it. For a foreign worker that something else is usually an immigration problem — and the two clocks run simultaneously, which is why the sequence people naturally choose, status first and benefit later, is the expensive one.
- Applies to
- Employment insurance subscribers, including foreign nationals who were covered
- Review cadence
- Checked once a year
What we have recorded
- 2026-09-2212 months
Job-seeking benefit is generally payable within 12 months of the day after the date of leaving. Days lost to a late application are not recovered at the end; the window closes on schedule regardless of when the claim started.
Employment Insurance Act
One reading so far. This becomes a history the first time the figure moves while we are watching — which is the part that cannot be reconstructed later.
Guides that depend on this figure
When this figure moves, every guide above needs the same edit. That is why it is tracked here rather than copied into each one.