Still Eligible for Other Benefits

• The major requirement for an unemployment extension is that you not be eligible to collect any other benefits from any other state at the time. This usually means you must exhaust your previous state unemployment as well as any previous extensions. When you must exhaust these benefits depends on the tier of extension in question. If you can still receive unemployment in any other form than the extension in question, you're not eligible for it.
  
  

Working or Earning Too Much

• California unemployment laws include the partially unemployed, too. However, if you work more than full-time hours each week, you can't collect any unemployment benefits, including an extension. California's earned income allowance is $58 as of 2011, which means you can earn up to $58 per week without affecting your unemployment payments. Everything above that is deducted from your weekly benefit amount. Therefore, you can't earn more than your weekly benefit amount plus $58 and still collect benefits.
  
  

Not Available or Able to Work

• California unemployment laws also require you to be available and able to work. Availability refers to the ability to take offered work during any normal shift for your industry. Prior commitments such as college classes or childcare issues might affect your eligibility in that situation. Able to work refers to the physical ability to perform work with reasonable accommodations. Although this doesn't exclude someone who is injured or handicapped, it excludes someone whose physical limitations prevent him from performing any work.
  
  

Not Looking for New Work

• An active job search is an unemployment requirement in every state for every level of unemployment. You must continue looking for new work the entire time you receive benefits. Your job search must include full-time work you can reasonably perform with your background and skills. You also must keep accurate work search records to show the state in case there is an audit on your claim. Your records should include the names of the companies, the names of the individuals with whom you speak, the positions for which you apply and the dates in questions.