Claiming German unemployment in the US

Hi
I recently finished my contract and the next thing I was supposed to have fell through so I am technically unemployed. I would like to go back to the states as soon as possible, but I have no idea if i will be able to collect my unemployment even if i do not live here. I know for EU citizens this is easily managed, but does anyone know how it works in the states?
It is really such a pain to deal with the arbeitsamt, any shortcuts also appreciated (e.g. good lawyers).
thank you in advance!

I guess this is the closest topic to my question..

In order toget a residence visa in Germany as a US citizen you have to have a job. So, technically, I will ALWAYS have to be working here. Can I somehow claim back the money I pay into unemployment? May sound selfish, but I'll never get to use the benefits of unemployment here..

When you say you finished your contract, were you freelance? In Germany in most cases you are only allowed to be employed as a permanent unless there are specific reasons for the employment contract to have a time limitation. Did you get a Kündigung? If you were freelance you won't be entitled to any unemployment benefit anyway (unless you paid into a special new insurance set up for freelancers).

Even if you are entitled to it, and this applies to EU as well as non EU nationals, you can only get it if you are officially registered as looking for employment - this means you have to be available to go to interview at a few days' notice. So not living in the country will be tricky in any case. You would need to have someone checking your post and be prepared to get on a flight fast to come back to interview - and again, if you don't manage to screw up the interview and actually get offered the job, you are not really allowed to turn it down (you used to be allowed to turn down up to about 3, for reasons of salary, but I think they have tightened those rules, so that if you aren't prepared to take on work at under your former level, your benefit will be turned off).

Ruaphu - in my case I am not freelance, but employed. My contract's up soon, and I will definitely be looking for employment afterwards. Problem is, I have to extend my visa after the contract's up, and without work, it'll be an issue. I got it extended once before without having a working contract, but only like 3 months.

I just feel they'll tell me to get out of their face if I ask for an extension of my visa AND unemployment money

@MoiLV: sorry, I am not sure of what the regulations are for your case with the visa, as although I am a kiwi I registered here as a Brit (as I have dual citizenship) so always had EU treatment. I only know the rules (more or less) for general unemployment situations, and even there some of my info is a bit out of date as I have been freelance for some time. I always understood that as a non EU person you could only get your visa extended if you already had a job and your boss wrote saying that you were specifically needed for the job. But from things I have read on this website I assume these rules have either been relaxed, or more and more people are finding ways to get around them.
EDIT: sorry, I have just seen that the original post (to which I initially replied) is out of date!