Employment Insurance: frequently asked questions

As soon as you stop working, and in any case no later than four weeks after your last day. Applying late can cost you benefits outright, because EI is generally not paid retroactively for the period before the application. Do not wait for your Record of Employment: you can apply without it, and Service Canada will match the employer’s electronic filing to your claim once it arrives.

About 28 days after you apply, provided your Record of Employment is on file and no issue is raised on the claim. After that first payment, benefits arrive every two weeks, following each bi-weekly report. Anything that needs investigation — a disputed reason for leaving, missing hours, severance to be allocated — adds weeks, so file the report on time even while a decision is pending.

Yes, provided you were an employee with EI premiums deducted from your pay and the contract ended for a valid reason — the end of a fixed term counts. What matters is the nature of the relationship, not the label on the agreement. Genuine self-employed contractors are not covered for regular benefits at all; they can only opt into the separate self-employed programme, which covers special benefits.

It is the form your employer files with Service Canada within five days of your last pay. It lists your insurable hours and earnings, and the code giving the reason for the separation — a code that weighs heavily on how the claim is assessed. Most are filed electronically: check yours in My Service Canada Account and report any error immediately rather than waiting for a decision.

Yes, and it is an ongoing condition, not a formality at the start. You must be available for work, capable of working, and actively searching, and you must be able to show it: keep a dated record of applications, employers contacted and responses received. Service Canada can request that record at any point. Full-time training suspends the requirement only when a provincial referral authority has approved it.

Generally not while you are receiving regular benefits, because you must remain available for work in Canada. The exceptions are narrow and time-limited: attending a funeral, receiving medical treatment not available in Canada, accompanying a family member for treatment, or attending a genuine job interview, for periods of roughly 7 to 14 days. Declare any absence on your report — undeclared travel is a common cause of overpayment.

Service Canada decides the question itself, after hearing both sides: the employer’s account on the Record of Employment is not conclusive. You will be asked for your version, and written evidence carries far more weight than recollection — emails, warning letters, medical notes, a resignation letter setting out the reason. Our guide on quitting and dismissal sets out what counts as just cause and as misconduct.

No. The calculator applies the rules in the Employment Insurance Act, the Schedule I table and the current regional unemployment rates, but it works from the figures you enter and cannot see your Record of Employment, your severance or any issue on the file. Only Service Canada decides a claim. Use the result to plan and to check a decision, not as the decision itself.

Yes. The rates come from Service Canada’s publication and are refreshed when a new period is issued, every four weeks. The validity period of the figures in use is shown underneath every result, so you can see at a glance whether the calculation reflects the current period. If your region sits close to a threshold, that date tells you how soon the next revision is due.

No, the programmes are entirely separate and EI has no effect on your entitlement to either. One indirect consequence is worth knowing: you do not make Canada Pension Plan contributions while receiving EI, because benefits are not pensionable earnings. A long claim therefore leaves a low-contribution year in your CPP record, which the general dropout provisions may or may not exclude from the eventual calculation.

Short courses that do not interfere with your availability or your job search are allowed, provided you declare them on your report. Full-time training is different: benefits continue only where a provincial or Indigenous referral authority has approved the training in advance, or under the Skills Boost rules for long-tenured workers. Starting a full-time programme without that approval usually ends the claim.

Nothing changes for the current claim. The regional unemployment rate, the hours you needed and the number of weeks payable are all fixed at the moment the claim starts, and a move does not reopen them. It is only a new claim, established after the move, that would be assessed against your new region — which can be better or worse depending on the rates on either side.