was your job, industry wise, if you don't mind sharing.

My info is a little dated since it's been a while since I had to deal with UE, and that came from the ER side (thankfully never filed for UE myself) but VA looks for the last qualified ER. Which for VA I believe was 90 days of employment, but may have been less. If you didn't qualify under your last ER, they would go back to the prior one, but I would be surprised if you didn't qualify under the FL ER, so they would kick it back to them. As such, you could be wasting your time filing in VA. Money wise, obviously you would want to file in VA, and should if you can.

If it's the same ER but you're working in different states, I would go back to your ER. Most people think UE is funded by "the taxpayers", it's not. It's funded by the ER's by paying SUTA (state UE tax) and FUTA (Fed UE tax) taxes on every dollar of payroll they pay (up to a cap), which I would argue, like health insurance, is actually paid by the employee since that's just dollars that can't go into paychecks. (as an aside, that's why I would rarely ever criticize someone for filing for UE and filing for the most you can possibly get - ultimately you the employee paid for it) All ER's pay the same rate to fund the Fed share of UE, but the tax rate they pay for the State share varies by state and based on the claims they've had. For that reason, the state that administers UE is going to want you to file in the state where taxes were paid to fund it. Even if it's the same ER, it's possible they were paying VA SUTA taxes while you worked there, and FL SUTA taxes while you worked there. That's why you would want to go back to your ER and ask where they were paying UE taxes on your wages while in FL.

I would be somewhat surprised if they weren't paying UE taxes to FL, but if you were just doing contract or remote work down there, it's certainly possible, especially if they don't have a large employee presence in FL. That's why you want to find out from your ER where they paid those SUTA taxes. So it's not really an either or filing situation based on which you like better or think can handle the claim more efficiently, but rather filing where you a) last qualified and b) taxes were paid to fund UE.

Back to if they're different ER's, my guess is you would have to file in FL because you worked there long enough for VA to say you qualify there.

May not be the answer you want to hear, but hopefully that helps you not lose time by filing in the right state first.