To apply for EI online, go to the Service Canada website and complete the Employment Insurance application as soon as possible after your last day of work. The application takes about an hour if your paperwork is ready, and Service Canada aims to issue a decision within 28 days of filing.1Government of Canada. EI Regular Benefits: After You Apply Do not wait for your Record of Employment before you start. Applying more than four weeks after your last day of work can permanently cost you benefits, because EI cannot be backdated beyond a limited period.2Government of Canada. EI Regular Benefits: Apply
When to Apply
File the day you stop working if you can. The four-week clock starts on your last day, and any delay past that window risks lost weeks of benefits that Service Canada will not pay retroactively.2Government of Canada. EI Regular Benefits: Apply
A missing Record of Employment is the most common reason people delay, and it is the wrong reason. Apply first. Service Canada can pull an electronic ROE directly from your employer’s filing, and you can note on your application if the ROE has not yet arrived.
There is also a temporary measure worth knowing about before you file: the usual one-week unpaid waiting period is waived for all new claims that start between March 30, 2025 and April 11, 2026. If your claim falls in that window, benefits begin from the first eligible week.3Government of Canada. Temporary Employment Insurance Measures to Respond to Major Economic Conditions If your employer runs a Supplemental Unemployment Benefit plan that tops up EI, you can choose to serve the waiting period instead, since some SUB plans are built around it.
What You Need Before You Start
Have everything on hand before you open the application. Restarts and stalls almost always come from missing information.
- Your nine-digit Social Insurance Number.4Government of Canada. Social Insurance Number – Overview
- Banking details for direct deposit: the three-digit financial institution number, five-digit branch (transit) number, and your account number. All three appear on a void cheque or in your online banking profile.5Government of Canada. EI Regular Benefits: Do You Qualify
- Names, addresses, and exact start and end dates for every job you held in the last 52 weeks.5Government of Canada. EI Regular Benefits: Do You Qualify
- Your Record of Employment (ROE), which shows your insurable hours, insurable earnings, and the reason your job ended. This is the central document in the EI system.6Government of Canada. EI Record of Employment
- If you are applying for sickness benefits, a completed medical certificate (form SC INS 5140) signed by your doctor or nurse practitioner, specifying the dates you cannot work.7Service Canada. Medical Certificate for Employment Insurance Sickness Benefits
About the Record of Employment
Your employer is required to issue an ROE every time you have a break in earnings. If the employer files electronically, the deadline is five calendar days after the end of the pay period in which your earnings stopped. Paper ROEs must be issued within five calendar days of the interruption itself.8Government of Canada. Employers: How to Complete the Record of Employment (ROE) Form
Log into your My Service Canada Account to check whether the electronic ROE has arrived. If it has, you do not need a paper copy. If it has not, apply anyway.
Filling Out the Online Application
Start at the Service Canada website. The system walks you through several screens, saving your progress along the way.
Early on, you choose the benefit type that matches your situation: Regular, Sickness, Maternity, Parental, Caregiving, or Compassionate Care. Each choice changes the questions that follow, so pick carefully. Regular benefits are for people who lost their job through no fault of their own, such as a layoff, seasonal work ending, or a shortage of work. Quitting without just cause or being fired for misconduct usually disqualifies you.5Government of Canada. EI Regular Benefits: Do You Qualify
You will then be asked to state the specific reason your job ended: shortage of work, end of contract, illness, or another category. Answer this the same way your employer coded it on your ROE. Service Canada cross-references the two, and mismatches trigger reviews that hold up your file.
Reporting Other Money From Your Employer
One section asks about money you received or will receive beyond regular wages, including vacation pay, severance, and retirement allowances. Service Canada allocates these amounts across specific weeks, which can push back when your benefits actually begin. Report them accurately. If an overpayment is discovered later, you must repay the full amount, and the debt is recovered from future benefits at 50% of your weekly rate until it is cleared.9Government of Canada. Employment Insurance and Overpayments
Confirming You Are Available for Work
Regular benefits require you to be ready and able to work each day and actively looking for a job. The application asks you to confirm this. Service Canada also requires you to keep a written record of every employer you contact, including when you reached out and what happened.5Government of Canada. EI Regular Benefits: Do You Qualify Start that log the day you apply.
After You Hit Submit
The system generates a confirmation number the moment you finish. Screenshot it or write it down. It is your proof of filing and your reference for every future call or message about your claim.
Shortly after, Service Canada mails you a Benefit Statement with a four-digit access code. You will use that code along with your SIN to submit your bi-weekly reports and to check your claim status online.1Government of Canada. EI Regular Benefits: After You Apply
The service standard is a decision within 28 days of filing, which Service Canada aims to meet 80% of the time. If you are eligible and your file is complete, your first payment arrives about 28 days after you apply.1Government of Canada. EI Regular Benefits: After You Apply
Bi-Weekly Reports and Your Job Search Log
Applying is not the end of the paperwork. Every two weeks for the entire duration of your claim, you must submit a report confirming you are still eligible. Reports are filed online or by phone using your SIN and access code. Miss one, and payments stop until you go through a formal process to restart them.10Government of Canada. Employment Insurance Reporting
Each report asks whether you worked or earned money during the two-week period, whether you were available for work each day, and whether you traveled outside Canada. Brief international travel can disqualify you for specific days, though benefits may still be payable while abroad if you can show you remained available for work in Canada.11Government of Canada. EI Regular Benefits: While on EI
Service Canada can ask to see your job search log at any point. Record the date of each contact, the employer’s name and contact information, the type of work you applied for, and the outcome. You do not need employers to sign anything or write letters confirming you applied. If anyone offers to sell you proof of a job search, refuse.12Government of Canada. Suitable Employment and Reasonable Job Search Efforts
Two Situations the Online Application Handles Differently
If you are self-employed, you cannot apply for regular EI benefits. You can access special benefits (sickness, maternity, parental, caregiving, and compassionate care), but only if you registered with the Canada Employment Insurance Commission through your My Service Canada Account and waited 12 months before filing. Registration cannot be done after the fact when you already need benefits.13Government of Canada. Benefits for Self-Employed People
If you live in Quebec, maternity, paternity, parental, and adoption benefits come through the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan rather than federal EI. You apply through that provincial system, not through Service Canada’s online EI application.