I cannot find an answer to this.

[GoldIsGood]

Can a bitcoin-qt wallet still receive payments if it is offline for an extended period of time?

Thank you!

[beetcoin]

yes it can, but before accessing your client you'd still need to catch up to the blockchain i believe.

[odolvlobo]

Yes. A wallet doesn't have to be running to receive bitcoins. When someone sends bitcoins, they don't interact with the receiver's wallet. The transaction is simply stored in the block chain. The receiver's wallet knows that the transaction is done when it sees the transaction in the block chain.

[BoneCollector]

What they said. So when it comes online again it will sync with the network and you will receive your coin

[Zoolu]

Once a payment is sent everyone who is online verifies it on the blockchain.

When you activate your wallet it will sync up with the blockchain and then you will see you BTC arrive

[beetcoin]

another way of saying it: when someone sends bitcoins to your wallet, it's not actually inside your .dat file. instead, your .date file has the information that points to where the # of BTC you have is on the blockchain.