Form APL124F is the Illinois Department of Employment Security’s Notice of Appeal to the Board of Review, the one-page form you use to challenge an unemployment Referee’s decision. You have 30 calendar days from the date the Referee’s decision was mailed to file it, and you can mail or hand-deliver it to your local IDES office, the Appeals Division, or the Board of Review in Chicago. If you have not had a Referee hearing yet and want to challenge an initial IDES determination, APL124F is the wrong form; you need form ADJ024FC to request reconsideration.1Illinois Department of Employment Security. Appeals
The 30-Day Filing Deadline
Under Section 801 of the Illinois Unemployment Insurance Act, a Referee’s decision becomes final unless a further appeal reaches the Board of Review within 30 calendar days after the decision is mailed.2Justia Law. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 405 – Unemployment Insurance Act The mailing date printed on the Referee’s written decision starts the clock, not the day the envelope lands in your mailbox. A postmark on or before day 30, or a date-stamped receipt from an IDES office, is your proof the appeal was timely.
Miss the window and the Board generally will not consider your appeal. Form APL124F does include a space to explain a late filing, so the Board has some discretion, but you have to show circumstances beyond your control kept you from filing on time. Serious illness, a death in your immediate family, or IDES sending the decision to the wrong address are the kinds of reasons that may justify a late filing. Forgetfulness or confusion about the deadline will not.3Illinois Department of Employment Security. Notice of Appeal / Board of Review (APL124F)
How to Fill Out the Form
Download APL124F as a PDF from the IDES website, or pick one up at your local IDES office. Keep the Referee’s written decision next to you while you work; several pieces of information on the form come straight off that document.
Identifying Information
Enter your full legal name and Social Security Number exactly as they appear on your IDES correspondence. Include the docket number from the Referee’s decision so the Board can pull your case file. Add your Claimant ID (shown on your UI Finding letter) if the form asks for it.
Your Reasons for Appealing
This is the section that matters most. The form asks why you disagree with the Referee’s decision. Be specific. Point to what the Referee got wrong, whether that is a factual finding, how the law was applied to your facts, or both. Vague complaints that the decision was unfair give the Board nothing to work with. Concrete errors do: the Referee relied on testimony you were not given a chance to rebut, a key document was overlooked, or the Referee mischaracterized the reason your job ended.3Illinois Department of Employment Security. Notice of Appeal / Board of Review (APL124F)
If you did not attend the Referee’s hearing, the form asks why. The Board treats missed hearings seriously, so you will need a compelling reason, such as never receiving the hearing notice or a medical emergency.
New Evidence
The Board of Review usually decides your appeal on the existing record from the Referee hearing. If you want the Board to consider something new, IDES Administrative Rule 2720.315(b) requires you to explain why, through no fault of your own and for reasons outside your control, you could not introduce that information at the hearing. You also have to certify that you sent a copy of the new evidence to the opposing party and describe how you delivered it, whether in person, by certified mail, or otherwise.3Illinois Department of Employment Security. Notice of Appeal / Board of Review (APL124F) Evidence you simply chose not to present the first time will likely be excluded.
Serving the Other Side
You must mail or hand-deliver a copy of the completed APL124F to the opposing party, typically your former employer if you are the claimant, or the claimant if the employer is appealing. The form asks you to confirm you did this and describe how. Skipping this step can delay or undermine your appeal.
Where to Send Form APL124F
You can mail or hand-deliver the completed form to any of the following:1Illinois Department of Employment Security. Appeals
- Your local IDES office. The address is on the Referee’s decision and earlier IDES mail.
- The Appeals Division, at the address shown on the Referee’s decision.
- The Board of Review directly: 115 S LaSalle St, 19th Floor, Chicago, IL 60603.
If you mail the form, use certified mail or another method that produces a delivery receipt. The postmark is your proof the appeal was filed on time, and you do not want to be arguing later about whether the envelope ever arrived. Keep a copy of the completed form and every attachment for your records.
Keep Certifying While You Wait
Your appeal does not pause your biweekly certification. You must continue to certify for benefits every two weeks through Tele-Serve or your online account. Weeks you fail to certify are generally lost even if the Board of Review later rules in your favor.3Illinois Department of Employment Security. Notice of Appeal / Board of Review (APL124F)
Getting the Transcript or Case File
You can ask for a copy of the Referee hearing transcript or the case file to help you build your Board of Review argument. If you are the party filing the appeal, the request must be made within 15 days after the appeal is filed. If you are the appellee (the party who did not file the appeal), you have 7 days after the Notice of Appeal is mailed to you.1Illinois Department of Employment Security. Appeals You can also inspect the file in person at the Board of Review’s office during normal business hours by submitting a completed Review File Request (Form APL114F).
What the Board of Review Does Next
The Board reviews the record from the Referee hearing: the testimony, the exhibits, and the Referee’s written decision. In most cases there is no new hearing. The Board reads the paper record and issues a written decision that is mailed to all parties. It can affirm the Referee, reverse the decision, modify it, or remand the case for further proceedings.
If the Board rules against you, your next step is an appeal to the Circuit Court in your county, which must be filed within 35 days of the Board’s decision. Circuit Court review is based on the administrative record; the court generally does not take new testimony or new evidence.1Illinois Department of Employment Security. Appeals
Framing a Strong Argument on the Form
Most unemployment denials turn on how your job ended. Matching your reasons for appeal to the legal standard the Referee applied makes the form far more persuasive.
If You Were Denied Under the Misconduct Rule
Section 602 of the Act disqualifies a worker who was fired for misconduct connected to the job. The statute defines misconduct as a deliberate and willful violation of a reasonable employer rule governing workplace behavior, where the violation either harmed the employer or other employees or was repeated after a warning.4Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 405/602 – Discharge for Misconduct – Felony A worker disqualified under this section must become reemployed and earn at least their weekly benefit amount in each of four calendar weeks before qualifying for benefits again.
If this is the basis of your denial, your appeal should attack the pieces of that definition. Was the rule actually reasonable? Was it a written rule, or something the employer invented after the fact? Did you receive a prior warning? Did the employer enforce the rule the same way with other employees? Was the violation willful, or a mistake? Each one of these is a place a Referee can go wrong.
If You Were Denied for Voluntarily Leaving
Section 601 disqualifies a worker who quit without good cause attributable to the employer, with the same four-week requalification requirement.5Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 405/601 – Voluntary Leaving If you quit, the burden is on you to show your reason was connected to something the employer did and serious enough that a reasonable person in your position would also have left.
The statute recognizes several situations where quitting does not disqualify you, including medical inability to work confirmed by a licensed clinician when the employer could not accommodate you, leaving to care for a spouse, child, or parent in poor health when the employer could not accommodate the need, leaving because of sexual harassment by another employee when the employer knew or should have known and failed to act, and leaving to accept a bona fide job offer where the new job then lasted at least two weeks or paid at least twice your weekly benefit amount. A time-limited provision also covers mental health disability confirmed by a licensed psychiatrist for claims dated December 28, 2025 through December 24, 2028, when the employer could not accommodate the worker.
When you appeal a voluntary-leaving denial, be specific about what the employer did or failed to do that made staying untenable, and back it up: physician statements for medical conditions, dates and reports to management for harassment, pay stubs for a pay cut. Those documents are the kind of record the Board can act on.