Chapter 70. Interstate and Multistate Claimants
16VAC5-70-10. Cooperative agreement.
A. This section shall govern the commission in its administrative cooperation with other states adopting a similar regulation for the payment of benefits to interstate claimants.
B. A week of unemployment for an interstate claimant shall consist of any week of unemployment as defined in the law of the liable state from which benefits with respect to such week are claimed.
C. Each interstate claimant shall be registered for work through any public employment office in the agent state when and as required by the law, regulations, and procedures of the agent state. Such registration shall be accepted as meeting the registration requirements of the liable state.
Each agent state shall duly report to the liable state in question whether each interstate claimant meets the registration requirements of the agent state.
D. If a claimant files a claim against any state and it is determined by such state that the claimant has available benefit credits in such state, then claims shall be filed only against such state as long as benefit credits are available in that state. Thereafter, the claimant may file claims against any other state in which there are available benefit credits. For the purposes of this chapter, benefit credits shall be deemed to be unavailable whenever benefits have been exhausted, terminated, or postponed for an indefinite period or for the entire period in which benefits would otherwise be payable or whenever benefits are affected by the application of a seasonal restriction.
E. Claims for benefits or a waiting period shall be filed by interstate claimants by Internet, telephone, or other such means as the commission may authorize.
Claims shall be filed in accordance with agent state regulations for intrastate claims.
1. With respect to claims for weeks of unemployment in which an individual was not working for the individual's regular employer, the liable state shall, under circumstances which it considers good cause, accept a continued claim filed up to one week or one reporting period late. If a claimant files more than one reporting period late, an initial claim shall be used to begin a claim series and no continued claim for a past period shall be accepted.
2. With respect to weeks of unemployment during which an individual is attached to the individual's regular employer, the liable state shall accept any claim which is filed within the time limit applicable to such claims under the law of the agent state.
F. The agent state shall, in connection with each claim filed by an interstate claimant, ascertain and report to the liable state in question such facts relating to the claimant's availability for work and eligibility for benefits as are readily determinable in and by the agent state. The liable state may utilize the telephone or mail to directly ascertain facts from the parties.
The agent state's responsibility and authority in connection with the determination of interstate claims shall be limited to investigation and reporting of relevant facts. The agent state shall not refuse to take an interstate claim.
G. The agent state shall afford all reasonable cooperation in the holding of hearings in connection with appealed interstate benefit claims.
With respect to the time limits imposed by the law of a liable state upon the filing of an appeal in connection with a disputed benefit claim, an appeal made by an interstate claimant shall be deemed to have been made and communicated to the liable state on the date when it is received by any qualified officer of the agent state, or the date it was mailed by the claimant, whichever is earlier.
H. This section shall apply in all its provisions to claims taken in and for Canada.
Statutory Authority
§§ 60.2-111 and 60.2-623 of the Code of Virginia.
Historical Notes
Derived from VR300-01-7 § 1, eff. December 14, 1994; amended, Virginia Register Volume 18, Issue 26, eff. November 3, 2002; Volume 39, Issue 8, eff. January 19, 2023.
16VAC5-70-20. Interstate cooperation.
A. This section, approved by the Secretary of Labor pursuant to § 3304(a)(9)(B), Federal Unemployment Tax Act and adopted under § 60.2-609 of the Code of Virginia, shall govern the Virginia Employment Commission in its administrative cooperation with other states relating to the Interstate Arrangement for Combining Employment and Wages.
B. A claim for benefits shall be filed by a combined-wage claimant in the same manner as by a claimant who is eligible for benefits under the unemployment insurance law of the paying state. An initial combined-wage claim may be canceled if the cancellation request is made within the appeal period shown on the monetary determination. The request for cancellation must be submitted in writing. A combined wage claim can only be established if there are base period wages in the paying state.
C. Benefits, in all cases, shall be paid to a combined-wage claimant from the unemployment insurance fund of the paying state, and all benefit rights shall be determined by the paying state pursuant to its unemployment insurance law.
D. Wages paid by the paying state to a claimant during the paying state's applicable base period, including wages reported for that period by a transferring state as available for the payment of benefits under the arrangement, shall be included by the paying state in determining such claimant's benefit rights.
Wages, once they have been transferred and used in a determination that established monetary eligibility for benefits in the paying state, shall be unavailable for determining monetary eligibility for benefits under the unemployment insurance law of the transferring state, except to the extent that wages are usable for redetermination purposes.
E. Each state, with respect to any combined-wage claimant, in utilizing forms approved by the Interstate Benefit Payment Committee, shall:
1. When acting as the paying state, send to the claimant a copy of the initial determination, noting his rights to appeal.
2. When acting as the paying state, send to each transferring state a statement of the benefits chargeable to each state. This is done at the end of each quarter in which any benefits have been paid, and each statement shall include the benefits paid during such quarter as to each combined-wage claimant. The ratio of each charge to total benefits paid shall be equal to the ratio of the wages reported by the transferring state (and used in the monetary determination) to the total wages used in the determination.
F. A transferring state shall, as soon as practicable after receipt of a statement as set forth in subsection E of this section, reimburse the paying state accordingly.
G. A claimant's wages shall not be combined, notwithstanding any other provision of this arrangement, if the paying state finds that based on combined wages the claimant would be ineligible for benefits. Wages reported by the transferring state shall in such event be returned to and reinstated by such state. The provisions of the interstate benefit payment arrangement shall apply to each claimant.
H. Whenever this plan applies, it will supersede any inconsistent provision of the Interstate Benefit Payment Plan and the regulation thereunder.
Statutory Authority
§§ 60.2-111 and 60.2-623 of the Code of Virginia.
Historical Notes
Derived from VR300-01-7 § 2, eff. December 14, 1994; amended, Virginia Register Volume 18, Issue 26, eff. November 3, 2002; Volume 39, Issue 8, eff. January 19, 2023.
Forms (16VAC5-70)
Initial Interstate Claim, VEC 2025 IB-1 (rev. 6/2022)
Notice of Wage Transfer Determination, VEC-CW-54 (rev. 7/2016)
Combined Wage Claim Cancellation Request, VEC-CW-31 (rev. 3/1994)