I finally received my first unemployment payment after an exhausting wait of 8 weeks. My claim was backdated to May 30th, which is when I submitted it, but the process was incredibly slow. Initially, I had to verify my ID, and then for the next 6 weeks, every time I tried to submit my payment, I encountered new requests for information that would pop up in my inbox just before or even on the day I was trying to submit. Now, it states that the payment will cover all 7 weeks (8 weeks minus the waiting week), but I’m unsure if the first payment is always issued as a check. I know that if it is, I might not be able to access any of that money until Friday at the earliest, even though my direct deposit has been in the system since May.