Can I receive EI if my wife’s job is relocated?

Interested in more careers-related content? Check out our new weekly Work Life newsletter. Sent every Monday afternoon.

THE QUESTION

My wife and I are looking to relocate to another province. We don’t have remote jobs, so we’d need to find work in our new town. I heard that you can qualify for employment insurance if you move because a spouse was relocated. Would I only qualify if my wife was relocated within the same company or would it still work if she quit and then found a new job somewhere else? What if she started a new business located somewhere else? If I started applying for work before her relocation, would that somehow nullify my ability to qualify for EI after she was relocated?

THE FIRST ANSWER

Jim Wu, lawyer, Forte Workplace Law, Surrey, B.C.

Under the Employment Insurance Act, you may qualify for EI if you quit your job “to accompany a spouse, common-law partner or dependent child to another residence” provided that you exhaust all “reasonable alternatives”.

What does it mean to exhaust all reasonable alternatives?

It means that you explored all other options and, in the end, you are left with the choice of keeping your job but at the expense of having to live separately from your spouse. Let’s look at two scenarios to illustrate this.

Scenario 1

You and your spouse live in Golden, B.C. Your spouse is homesick and decides to spend a few months with their family in Calgary and you quit your job immediately to accompany them.

Scenario 2

You decide to keep your job and remain in Golden while your spouse spends time with their family in Calgary. Six months later, your spouse decides they want to stay in Calgary, and they establish themselves by finding work (whether it is employed or self-employed work does not matter). You have taken a leave of absence with your employer to visit your spouse in Calgary and, at that same time, went for a few job interviews there but were not successful. You decide to quit your job to reunite with your spouse.

You will likely receive EI in the second scenario because you have demonstrated that you explored other options besides quitting and that you had to quit your job to live with your spouse. The timing of when you applied for work is irrelevant.

THE SECOND ANSWER

Dina Mashayekhi, partner, Jewitt McLuckie & Associates LLP, Ottawa

Although you would normally be disqualified from receiving EI regular benefits if you voluntarily quit your job, there are exceptions. One of the recognized circumstances that can constitute “just cause” for voluntarily leaving your job is to accompany a spouse to another city or province, provided that leaving your job was the only reasonable alternative in the circumstances.

In order to qualify, it is not necessary that your spouse be transferred by her current employer. The key issue is whether the relocation required you to move and whether quitting your job was your only reasonable alternative. If your spouse quits and accepts a new job elsewhere or possibly relocates to start a business, Service Canada will assess the circumstances to determine whether leaving your employment was justified.

To establish just cause, you will generally need to show that:

1. Your spouse relocated to another city or province.
2. You had no reasonable alternative to quitting, such as commuting or transferring within your company.
3. You remain available for work in the new location, meaning you are ready, willing and able to work and are actively seeking employment. Keeping records of your job-search efforts is advisable.

Applying for jobs before the move would not normally nullify your ability to qualify for EI. In fact, it may help demonstrate that you were taking reasonable steps to remain employed. Ultimately, every case is decided on its own facts and Service Canada will review all of your personal circumstances before determining eligibility.

Have a question for our experts? Send an e-mail to NineToFive@globeandmail.com with ‘Nine to Five’ in the subject line. E-mails without the correct subject line may not be answered.