Section 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 mail or other such means as the commission may authorize.

Claims shall be filed in accordance with agent state regulations for intrastate claims in field offices, at an itinerant point or by mail.

1. With respect to claims for weeks of unemployment in which an individual was not working for his 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 his 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.

Historical Notes

Derived from VR300-01-7 § 1, eff. December 14, 1994; amended, Volume 18, Issue 26, eff. November 3, 2002.

Statutory Authority

§ 60.2-111 of the Code of Virginia.