State labor department officials are mailing the first of the checks Thursday. The extension provides for up to 20 weeks of additional benefits to individuals who exhausted regular unemployment insurance and the first and second tier of Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits on or after Feb. 15.

To be eligible for extended unemployment insurance programs, individuals must be unemployed and not eligible to establish a new regular unemployment claim in Georgia, any other state, U.S. territory or Canada.

Georgia labor officials began mailing eligibility notification letters May 8. The letter provides instructions on how to apply for extended benefits.