Can an employee who works out of one state claim unemployment from another state if they don't live in the state they are claimig unemployment?  I have employees scattered across the country and since we are a 501(c)(3), we are not liable for UI in the various states.  If we were allowed to voluntarily elect, we would but a few states won't even let us do that.  So I'm wondering if the employee from the state we don't have UI gets fired, can he claim for unemployment in the state where we are headquartered and have UI?  I'm so confused.  I just want our employees to not be penalized because we only employee 1 or 2 employees per state. 

It is my understanding that they can.  I had an employee recently that we hired after he had been laid off from a large company.  He was told when he applied for unemployment, prior to us hiring him, that he had to apply in the state where the company was located and not the state where he lived. 

Oh good, now I don't feel so bad.  It is just frustrating that they won't let us voluntarily elect.  Not even to reimburse.

The rules vary from state to state about what contexts qualify a person to make a claim in their state.  When I worked for a Texas firm that was based in Arkansas, had I been laid off, I would not have been eligible to make a claim in Arkansas because I had no income there.