EI Waiting Period: Waived Until When?

What the waiting period is

The waiting period is one week at the start of an EI claim for which you are not paid. canada.ca compares it to the deductible on other kinds of insurance. It is served once per benefit period, and it doesn't reduce the number of weeks you can collect: it is an unpaid week in front of your paid weeks.

In 2026 terms, it can be worth up to $729, the weekly maximum. For someone whose benefit is $550 a week, a waived waiting week means $550 more in their first payment cycle.

If you reactivate an existing claim that still has weeks left, you don't start a new benefit period. canada.ca points out that choosing a brand-new claim instead brings a new waiting week, outside the temporary waiver.

The temporary waiver: exact dates

The waiver is part of a set of temporary EI measures first introduced in 2025 and extended several times. Pilot Project No. 25 (SOR/2026-203, Canada Gazette) came into force on October 11, 2026 and carries the measures forward. Here is what canada.ca lists as of 2026-11-06:

None of these are permanent. The current waiver window under Pilot Project No. 25 is October 11, 2026 to October 9, 2027; earlier temporary measures covered claims from March 30, 2025, so there has been no gap. Severance and vacation pay are covered in severance and vacation pay.

What date decides whether you're covered

The waiver depends on the date your claim starts (the start of your benefit period), not the date you last worked, the date you apply, or the date you get paid.

Under section 10 of the Employment Insurance Act, a benefit period begins on a Sunday: the later of the Sunday of the week your interruption of earnings happens and the Sunday of the week you make your claim. So the earliest possible start is the Sunday of the week you stopped working and being paid, and applying in that same week gets it. A claim made later can still be treated as made on an earlier day (antedated) if Service Canada accepts the reason; otherwise the start date moves later. The longer you wait, the bigger the risk: beyond 4 weeks after your last day of work, you may lose benefits. See the 4-week rule and antedating.

Worked examples

• Laid off in the window. Jordan's last day is Friday, November 13, 2026. She applies online the next day, Saturday, November 14, still in the same week. Her claim can start on Sunday, November 8, 2026, which is inside the October 11, 2026–October 9, 2027 window, so there's no waiting week. At $550 a week, that is $550 she would otherwise not have been paid.
• Near the end of the window. Alex's last day is Wednesday, October 6, 2027. If he applies that same week, his claim can start on Sunday, October 3, 2027, inside the current window that ends October 9, 2027. If he waits until late October 2027 to apply and has no good cause for the delay, his claim may start on a later Sunday. As the window stands today, that would be after it closes, so the waiting week would apply.
• Waiver ends, benefit unchanged. For a claim starting after October 9, 2027 (if there is no extension), the person still gets the same weekly rate and the same number of weeks; only the first week is unpaid.

A waived week doesn't mean faster processing

The waiver changes whether the first week is paid. It doesn't speed up Service Canada. If you are eligible and have provided everything needed, the first payment usually arrives about 28 days after you apply, and only after your reports are processed. You must file reports every 2 weeks for as long as you receive benefits.

What you can control is timing. If you apply more than 4 weeks after your last day of work, you may lose benefits. You don't need your Record of Employment first: you can apply on canada.ca and send documents later.

What happens after the waiver ends

The waiver only removes the unpaid first week. Your weekly rate (55% of your best-weeks average, capped at $729 in 2026) and your number of weeks are worked out the same way with or without it, so a claim just inside the window and one just outside differ by one week of pay, not by the size of every cheque. If your job is ending around the time the window closes, the safest move is simply to apply as soon as you stop working, so your claim start date is as early as the law allows.

Unless the government extends the measure again, new claims that start after October 9, 2027 will have the normal one-week waiting period. The measures have been extended more than once since 2025, but there is no guarantee of another extension, so don't plan around one. MyEI updates these dates when canada.ca changes them; the date checked is shown at the top of this guide.

For a decision on your own claim, only Service Canada can tell you: call 1-800-206-7218 or start at canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei.html. MyEI is an independent information and estimate tool and is not affiliated with Service Canada or the Government of Canada.