For you to be eligible for unemployment benefits, you should not have lost your job due to your own efforts, for example, you should not have received the pink slip for any act of misconduct or felony. Also, you should not have resigned on your own nor should you have opted to resign rather be fired unceremoniously. Nonetheless, if any of these reasons do apply to you then there is nothing to lose but everything to gain so why not file a claim and you might win your unemployment benefits at the time of appeal. Your claim application is considered for individual merit and hence, if there is no evidence to show that a grave misconduct was committed or there are serious reasons for the unemployment to be denied.
You need to be full time employed for a statutorily minimum period of time during the base period which is normally considered as the four quarters out of the five quarters just prior to the quarter in which you have filed your claim. Also, you must have earned the minimum statutory amount during this base period. Above all, you must be physically able and willing to accept employment, that is, if per chance you are disabled, then you may lose your unemployment benefits or even if you are unable to accept a suitable job for personal reasons like taking up higher studies, then also you may lose out on your unemployment benefits.
You have a total of one calendar year or 52 weeks to spread out your unemployment benefits which normally are for 26 weeks without taking into account the extended benefits. Thus you may opt for unemployment benefits at intermittent intervals by opting off when you are working at a temporary job. This will automatically stretch the unemployment eligibility for a longer duration.