저도 I-485 pending중, EAD를 가지고 unemployment benefit을 claim할 수 있는지 궁금해서 찾아보았습니다.

http://www.immigration-law.com/Matthew%20Oh%20Blog.html

Employment-Based Nonimmigrants and Unemployment Compensation Claims

The country is witnessing a soaring unemployment and today’s release of unemployment statistics by DOL is expected to shock the nation. It is ongoing daily event and news nowadays that companies are laying off people or shutting down the business. Such unemployment includes foreign workers working on employment-based nonimmigrant visas such as H, L, O, P, F-1 OPT, etc. Each state unemployment offices handle unemployment claims by the nonimmigrants differently, but I would not even dare mentioning about the issue of eligibility of unemployment compensation under the law, because the filing of unemployment benefits by the nonimmigrants can face one of two serious consequences. One conseuqnence involves the state office contacting the USICE, the immigration enforcement agency, to report “loss of job” by the nonimmigrant. The second consequences of violation of nonimmigrant status since the maintenance of “employment-based” nonimmigrants is contingent upon working with the petitioning employer without interruptions. Strictly speaking, any tip of information of such violation can trigger the immigrant enforcement agents to arrest and initiate removal (deportation) proceedings. Claim of unemployment compensation at the state offices is evidence of such violation of nonimmigrant status, and upon the state office’s report of such claims with the USICE, the agency can act against such claimants. I understand that it is unfair in that foreign workers are paying same taxes for their income and theoretically, they should deserve unemployment benefits. Such claims have been refuted by a few courts throughout the country. Besides, even if the state office accepts such claims, because of its consequences on their immigration status and potential enforcement by the government agencies, practically the unemployment claims by such nonimmigrants are shut out. This is a difficult time for the foreign workers in nonimmigrant status falling unemployed, but one cannot ignore the reality. There is a saying in the Orient that only a fool would walk into the cave of a tiger. asking the tiger to eat him or her up.

In a way, the foreign workers who are going through the employment-based permanent resident proceedings may also be potentially vulternable to such risk as well. The Office of Foreign Labor Certification has disclosed that the Atlanta National Processing Center has been surfing the internet sites to check with unemployment situation at the location of labor certification application filing to determine the legitimacy of the employer’s claims that there are no U.S. workers available for the labor certification job which is the basis of a foreign labor certification application. I have no specific information whether they are also checking with the unemployment compensation offices of the DOL to check the layoff record of the employer and the alien beneficiary. Even though there is no disclosed information that the USCIS is undertaking such processing in adjudicating I-140 petitions, one can easily admit that they may conduct such investigation from time to time. Filing unemployment claims can thus bring a deadly consequences on the pending labor certification application or I-140 petition and even I-485 application proceedings as it exposes the alien beneficiary’s loss of the job that was the basis for the labor certification and immigration proceedings.

Besides, no matter whether it is just or unjustice, the news of foreign workers taking unemployment benefits will fire up the emotion of the U.S. citizen tax payers, particularly conservative sector of the population giving them a scapegoat for their claim against immigration. For all of the foregoing reasons, the foreign workers should exercise their good judgment and prudence such that they think twice before they dare walk into the unemployment compensation offices.

여기서도 어떤 분명한 결론은 내리지 않고 있지만, 그다지 긍정적인것 같지는 않습니다. 자세한 것은 변호사를 통해 물어보시는 게 더 좋을 것 같습니다. L1A도 employment based immigration에 속하는 것 아닌가요?