Samuels, a PhD student at the University of Malaga, had been earning income from U.S.-based gigs as a freelance writer. When that work dried up last March, he applied for unemployment.
But the New York Department of Labor denied his claim. It is now trying to claw back more than $5,000 in payments the state thinks were made in error.
Samuels and others like him are caught at the nexus of two competing and confounding forces: a state requirement that workers be physically present and able to work in the U.S. to collect unemployment, and a virus that made it impossible and unsafe to travel.
The Pandemic Stranded These Americans Overseas Now, Their Unemployment Benefits Are in Jeopardy
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The pandemic stranded these Americans overseas Now, their unemployment benefits are in jeopardy
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