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Unemployment claims · Virginia

Virginia claim deadlines for employers

In Virginia a request for separation information has to be answered within 10 calendar days from the date the notice was mailed. That is the window Unemploy exists to hold: the state decides the claim on whatever it has when it shuts.

The benefit-charge protest window is 30 calendar days from the date the notice was mailed. That one runs on the quarterly statement; the audit that reads it is free.

Every number on this page is the one in our rules table for Virginia, with the page or statute it was read out of printed beside it. Nothing here is an average across states. If you think a line is wrong, the source is one click away. Tell us and we will fix the row.

The outline is the range across the 49 states the table has sourced. The solid bar is Virginia.

Virginia’s page, with every source

Separation responsefrom the date printed on the notice of claim
10d2d, Alaska15d, Delaware
Benefit-charge protestfrom the date printed on the quarterly statement
30d10d, Hawaii60d, California
Appeal of a determinationfrom the determination date
30d7d, New Jersey45d, Minnesota

The windows

The table carries 3 windows for Virginia. Each is counted from the date named in the last column.

WindowHow longCounted from
Separation response10 calendar daysthe date the notice was mailed
Charge protest30 calendar daysthe date the notice was mailed
Appeal of a determination30 calendar daysthe date the notice was mailed

The table carries no fact-finding window and no wage audit window for Virginia. That is a gap in our table, not a statement that Virginia holds none.

How the window is held

A deadline anybody has to remember is a deadline somebody misses. The Virginia numbers above are not a reference table this site publishes and then forgets: they are the table Unemploy’s AI agents compute from.

An agent computes the due date, never assumes it

An agent puts each notice on the Virginia row above and computes the date from it. Six different things can stop that computation, and each one refuses by name rather than falling back on a default number of days. A guessed deadline renders identically to a real one and puts a countdown on the screen, and the customer finds out it was wrong when the window has already shut.

An agent walks every open window, every thirty minutes

It escalates to you at three days left, at one day left and at two hours left. Inside the last window nothing quiets it, and it clears when the item is filed and not before.

You are the only person in it

An agent classifies the notice and sets the clock. An agent sends the questions to the manager who did the firing. An agent drafts the response from the answers, with the evidence under every sentence. You read it and press send. Nothing else waits on anyone, on either side.

Where each number comes from

One block per window: the number, the state’s own sentence, and anything about the row that is stranger than the number alone suggests.

Separation response

10 calendar days from the date the notice was mailed.

“Timely" if it is not made within 10 calendar days after the delivery or mailing of the Commission's request for information.”Code of Virginia Sec. 60.2-528.1. Charging of benefits relating to certain overpayments; penalty for pattern of failure to respond to requests for information

Note from the rules table

The quote starts mid-clause because the statute defines the term in quotation marks: the full clause reads '2. "Timely" if it is not made within 10 calendar days...'. Ten CALENDAR days, running from delivery or mailing. VEC states the same on its employer page: 'Under the Code of Virginia Sec. 60.2-528.1 employers have 10 calendar days to respond to a separation report.' and warns 'If you respond by mail, the response must be received, not just postmarked, by the deadline to be considered timely.' (https://www.vec.virginia.gov/employers-report-separation-wage-information). Effective July 1, 2025 a pattern of late or inadequate responses (three or more in the 48-month review period) costs appeal rights on the claim -- VEC: 'Third failure: You lose your appeal rights to the decision on that claim'.

Source: Code of Virginia Sec. 60.2-528.1. Charging of benefits relating to certain overpayments; penalty for pattern of failure to respond to requests for information Read 2026-09-02.

Charge protest

30 calendar days from the date the notice was mailed.

“The amount specified shall be conclusive on the employer unless, not later than 30 days after the notice of benefit charges was mailed to its last known address or otherwise delivered to it, the employer files an appeal with the Commission, setting forth the grounds for such an appeal.”Code of Virginia Sec. 60.2-528. Individual benefit charges

Note from the rules table

Employers are notified of charges QUARTERLY (Sec. 60.2-528(B)(2): 'Any employer charged with benefits paid shall be notified of the charges quarterly by the Commission.'). Critical scope limit in the same subsection: 'Any appeal perfected pursuant to the provisions of this section shall not address any issue involving the merits or conditions of a claimant's separation from employment.' -- the charge appeal cannot relitigate the separation. Separately, Sec. 60.2-525 requires the Commission to provide every covered employer a statement of benefit charges and taxes by December 31 each year.

Source: Code of Virginia Sec. 60.2-528. Individual benefit charges Read 2026-09-02.

Appeal of a determination

30 calendar days from the date the notice was mailed.

“Such determination or decision shall be final unless the claimant or any such employing unit files an appeal from such determination or decision within 30 calendar days after such notification was mailed”Code of Virginia Sec. 60.2-619. Determinations and decisions by deputy; appeals therefrom

Note from the rules table

Thirty CALENDAR days, and the statute names the employing unit expressly. The provision continues 'or, if the party elects to receive electronic communications pursuant to Sec. 60.2-121.1, electronically delivered to his last known address' and adds 'For good cause shown, the 30-day period may be extended.' Under 16VAC5-80-20 an appeal is presumed filed on the date of receipt, except that a mailed appeal is presumed filed on the USPS postmark date.

Source: Code of Virginia Sec. 60.2-619. Determinations and decisions by deputy; appeals therefrom Read 2026-09-02.

Relief grounds, in Virginia’s own language

The table carries one sourced ground for Virginia.

No benefit charges deemed the responsibility of the employer

The individual's separation arose from a violation of law leading to confinement in jail or prison; the individual voluntarily left to accept other employment genuinely believed permanent; the individual refused an offer of rehire because in Commission-approved training under Sec. 60.2-613; the individual voluntarily left to enter Trade Act Sec. 236 approved training; the individual was hired to replace a reservist or National Guard member called to active duty in an international conflict and was terminated on that member's return; the individual voluntarily left with good cause for a personal bona fide medical reason from a non-job-related injury or condition; the individual was an inmate in a work-release or community residential program whose separation arose from conditions of release or parole; the individual could not work at regular employment because of a Governor-declared disaster that forced the employer's business to close (maximum four weeks of charges waived); the individual left to accompany a military spouse on a permanent-change-of-station order meeting four stated conditions; or (until July 1, 2028) the individual received an overpayment the Commission waived under Sec. 60.2-633(A).

Filed on a letter. Code of Virginia Sec. 60.2-528(C).

“No "benefit charges" shall be deemed the responsibility of an employer of:”Code of Virginia Sec. 60.2-528. Individual benefit charges

Recorded automatic:false: the grounds are separation-based, so they depend on the separation information the employer supplies within the Sec. 60.2-528.1 ten-day window, and Sec. 60.2-528.1(B) withholds relief from erroneous payments where the employer has established a pattern of untimely or inadequate responses. Note also that the quarterly charge appeal under Sec. 60.2-528(B)(2) expressly cannot reach separation merits.

Source: Code of Virginia Sec. 60.2-528. Individual benefit charges Read 2026-09-02.

Where it gets filed

SIDES / SIDES E-Response

SIDES E-Response. Handles the separation response.

Source: Employer's Report of Separation & Wage Information (Virginia Employment Commission) Read 2026-09-02.

Employer Self Service (ESS)

State portal. Handles the separation response, charge protest and the appeal of a determination.

Source: Employer's Report of Separation & Wage Information (Virginia Employment Commission) Read 2026-09-02.

VEC separation report fax

Fax. Handles the separation response.

(804) 343-1459

Source: Employer's Report of Separation & Wage Information (Virginia Employment Commission) Read 2026-09-02.

Virginia Employment Commission (separation reports)

Mail. Handles the separation response.

Virginia Employment Commission, P.O. Box 27887, Richmond, VA 23261-7887

Source: Employer's Report of Separation & Wage Information (Virginia Employment Commission) Read 2026-09-02.

Office of First Level Appeals (address on the determination)

Mail. Handles the appeal of a determination.

Source: 16VAC5-80-20. First level appeals Read 2026-09-02.

Representation at a hearing

A non-attorney may represent an employer at a hearing in Virginia

Virginia permits a non-attorney to appear for an employer, and the authority for that is on the jurisdiction's own page. Unemploy can appear at a hearing in Virginia.

This is a VEC hearing-procedure rule, and the following subdivision addresses the employer directly and distinguishes an agent from counsel: 'An employer shall be permitted one representative, in addition to counsel or duly authorized agent, who may attend the entire proceeding.' Taken together the rule contemplates a non-attorney authorized representative or duly authorized agent appearing for an employer. It does not use the word 'corporation', so a strict reader may want 16VAC5-80-40 (approval of attorney's fees) and VEC practice checked as well.

Source: 16VAC5-80-20. First level appeals (Virginia Administrative Code, Virginia Employment Commission, Chapter 80 Adjudication) Read 2026-09-02.

Notes on the Virginia row

What the person who sourced this row wanted the next reader to know, verbatim.

Virginia is the best-sourced state in this group: all three required windows come from the Code of Virginia on the General Assembly's own site, and representation comes from a VEC hearing-procedure rule.

Sec. 60.2-619(B) has two versions in force (one effective until July 1, 2028, one after); neither version changes the 30-day appeal window in subsection D.

Every source behind this page

10 documents, each one fetched and read on the date beside it. No number on this page comes from anywhere else.

The Virginia row describes the rules in effect from 2026-09-02, and every row in the table was last read against its sources on 2026-09-02. Every populated field on this row traces to a primary source: the agency's own page, the statute, or the state's own employer handbook. Unemploy is not a law firm and this page is not legal advice.