回复：James, how is your job hunting?

For unemployment benefit, you can apply now. However, they won't pay you the period your package covers. I don't know how many weeks paid vacation they paid you when you left the company. I assume it were 2 weeks. Also they paid you 6 weeks for layoff. Therefore, you won't get unemployment benefit for your first 8 weeks. After that, they will send you checks. So, you should apply now. It usually took 2 weeks to process.