Everything you need to know about repatriation to Israel

Anyone who is thinking about repatriation to Israel should understand that this process is interesting, but very slow. Let’s start in order.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR REPATRIATION TO ISRAEL

Jews, children of Jews and grandchildren of Jews have repatriation by birthright. Fourth generation, i.e. great-grandchildren, can only be repatriated with their parents until they come of age. Jewish family members of any nationality (wife/husband), their children.

Elderly parents who remain in another country and are unable to care for themselves due to age or illness can come to their son or daughter, an Israeli citizen. (Family reunification).

Minor children living in another country and left without care can be reunited with a Jewish parent, an Israeli citizen. (Family reunification).

A woman or man who is married to an Israeli citizen or citizen. But this is a separate difficult issue, we will not consider it in this article.

A person who voluntarily passed conversion (accepted Judaism), in the presence of all the necessary documents and the passage of mandatory procedures – interviews.

DOCUMENTS

It all starts with the preparation of documents. You must find the birth certificates of your parents or grandparents, where the nationality is written. Or one of the relatives by whose right you are repatriated. Maybe a passport from the times of the USSR was preserved, where there was also a nationality column (if you are repatriating from Russia or former countries that were part of the USSR). You attach to these documents everything that has been preserved – from work books and trade union cards to party cards and education diplomas. If relatives are no longer alive, it is desirable to have death certificates. If you do not have documentary evidence that one of the parents or grandparents was of Jewish nationality, then it is too early to start the procedure. If you are sure that there were such ancestors, then you need to turn to all possible archives. But it is better to send requests officially, and not privately. Private emails may not be answered. You need to go to the registry office at the place of residence and, together with the employees, make the necessary request. Then they themselves send it through the necessary authorities, and within three months you should receive an official response. Such requests can be made to other countries, and to any organization.

Your documents for all family members required for repatriation:

• birth certificates;
• internal passports;
• international passports;
• education documents;
• work books;
• extracts from the house book;
• medical certificates upon request in connection with the coronavirus and post-coronavirus situation.

CONSULATE

When all the documents are collected, you need to go to the website of the Israeli Consulate and familiarize yourself with the process of submitting documents. There are nuances all the time. Due to the epidemiological situation, it will be necessary to download and print out questionnaires for yourself and family members, fill them out manually, scan and send them as written on the consulate website. You can look even before the start of collecting documents, suddenly new introductory ones appeared. Be sure to check the answer that the documents have been received. Sometimes the files won’t open. It is necessary to repeat the procedure until you are sure that the documents are accepted. And after that, it remains only to wait for a call with an invitation to an interview with the consul. Be prepared – from 3 months to a year and a half. Do not lose documents during this time. If there are any changes in the marital status, immediately take care of collecting all possible supporting certificates.

Finally, the consulate called you and invited you for an interview. Put everything aside and go.) You need to take with you all your documents, all the documents that you managed to get about a relative, and all the new papers that have appeared during this time, if you have had any changes. If, for example, you are divorced or married, then a divorce or marriage certificate is not enough, you also need a certificate from the registry office confirming the fact that happened. If you are exporting a child from your first marriage, then you need a notarized permission from the second parent.

Be prepared for the fact that on the appointed day in front of the embassy you will stand in line on the street, then they will check everything that you have with you, including baby nipples (you will have to leave all gadgets somewhere), because. nothing can be entered. If you are without a car, then in Moscow, not far from the embassy, there is a left-luggage office. Paid. Then at the consulate you will also have to sit in line, wait for a call, and if everything goes well and you are given a visa for repatriation, then after the interview you will still have to wait for documents with a visa stamped.

At an interview with the consul or his assistants, questions can be very different – from where did the grandmother live? – to “why were you going to leave?” and “how and where do you plan to teach children?”. Answer only the truth and nothing but the truth. They already know everything about you and it seems that they see right through)))! It happens that after the first interview you do not receive a visa, and you will be asked to bring some other documents. Sometimes it’s work time. And it happens that they immediately refuse to repatriate, especially if you are the 4th generation and still decide to try. Sometimes it happens. Well, all the permits have been received, the visa is in the passport, exhaled, what to do next?

THE PROCESS OF MOVING

Then there are two options. If you know everything, you have people in Israel who are ready to meet you and help you in everything, you buy a ticket and fly. But this is a very inconvenient option. If you are not so brave, then everything is in order. You have 6 months while your repatriate visa is valid. If during the first week the curator from Sokhnut does not contact you, then call there yourself. The curator will send you a paper that you sign for the processing of personal data. After that, they will start working with you. You need to find out from the curator in which month there are plane tickets for you (they are paid by “Dry”) and express your wishes. The curator will tell you everything about the organization of the flight, how much luggage you can take for free, how much you can for your extra money. You can gather. Take all the documents you have. Be careful about filling your suitcases. It is highly recommended to take household trifles so as not to run around in the first days in search of shops in order to buy cleaning gloves. Take rags, some chemicals, cutlery, mugs, etc. and so on. Do not take fur coats and down jackets, they will not be needed here, but towels, blankets, pillows, bed linen will come in very handy. Habitual medicines for the first time, because. you can’t buy almost anything without a prescription in Israel, and you won’t meet a family doctor right away.

Read in advance information about health insurance companies (these are medical insurance companies) and banks in Israel. You will be asked to choose a cashier at the collection stage. You will have to go to the bank on the first day of arrival. Even before departure, you need to decide which city in Israel you are flying to. You will be asked for an address. The options are as follows: in some cities they provide an apartment for free for the first two weeks, while you complete the documents and choose a permanent apartment for yourself. But this is not everywhere. This option must be agreed with the curator. There are also kibbutzim (it’s like collective farms in the former USSR). They live in a community there. Everyone works, the earnings are divided equally, they live for free on the territory of the kibbutz. They are all very different: somewhere they grow grapes, and somewhere they assemble computers. Read more about it. The third option is to agree in advance on renting an apartment or a room for one or two weeks. This is in those cities where there is no free housing. The price is about 60 dollars per day

On the day of departure, you must arrive at the airport 3 hours in advance. You will be met at the check-in desks, asked questions, checked and received your luggage. Then, before departure, there will be another check of documents. Everywhere there will be representatives of the Sokhnut, who can be asked any questions. On the plane, they will feed you once.

When you arrive, you will be met and everyone will be taken to the meeting together. There they will again offer food and drink. They will issue the first documents and money, explain what to do next. It will take from 1 to 2 hours, depending on the number of people arriving. Then you will be taken to get your luggage, then they will take you to your accommodation in cars and buses. That’s it, you are in the promised land! You left the airport already as citizens of Israel!

PROCEDURE

Good morning! Woke up?! Let’s go! First, to the bank (you looked at the map a long time ago, where in relation to your house there is a branch of the bank you have chosen) to open an account. Without it, you can’t get anywhere. When opening an account, you also need to order credit and debit cards and checks to pay for the apartment. After opening an account, you can immediately go to the Ministry of Aliya to have the absorption basket credited. You can also ask the curator in the ministry any questions – from getting a job – to sending children to school. Be sure to check out Ulpan, a free Hebrew language school. Without the language, it will be very difficult to find a decent job. At the airport, they will tell you which department to go to, depending on where you live, and they will give you the phone number of the curator. You will already have a temporary local SIM card (will be issued at the airport), and you can order a new one only after receiving bank cards.

We start looking for an apartment right away, studying all possible sites. On city maps, apartments rented with a broker are marked in orange, and without a broker – in gray. If you already know Hebrew and all the nuances of drawing up an agreement to rent an apartment in Israel, you can try without a broker. If you don’t know, you can’t do without a broker. The contract is in Hebrew, a huge number of little things that need to be taken into account. Be careful! Broker’s services cost 100 percent of the monthly payment. In addition to paying for an apartment, you will also pay a tax on land (Arnona), for electricity, gas, water, and cleaning the entrance. Then you will spend the Internet, also for it. Almost all owners require payment of an insurance premium and guarantors. If you have nowhere to get guarantors, let the broker negotiate with the owner. Feel free to ask the broker any questions. You have to go into all the little things.

While you have nowhere to go without cards and a checkbook, find a repatriate house in the city, go there, get to know each other, they can give advice, or they can provide some help. As soon as you get checkbooks and cards in your hands, you can conclude an agreement for an apartment. With the cards in hand, immediately go to the health insurance fund of your choice. There you will be issued, and you can make an appointment with the family doctor – get to know each other, ask what you want to know about medicine.

TEUDAT ZEHUT AND DARKON

At the airport, you were given a Teudat Ole – a repatriate passport, according to which you will receive other documents and apply for benefits for new repatriates. Usually they give one document for the whole family. You were also given temporary internal passports (Teudat Zehut), or their numbers were put down in Teudat Ola. You are already citizens, but without a passport in your hands. The passport is ordered from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At the moment, getting in line at the Ministry of Internal Affairs is a real adventure. But this must be done. Find out where the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is in your city or nearby, go, call, try to sign up. The government is said to be taking action and things will get easier soon. Wait and see. At the Ministry of Internal Affairs, you will order Teudat Zehut – an internal passport, and you can try ordering a Darkon – an international passport. But not all departments can do this at once. Somewhere they accept an application for Darkon only after three months of living in the country, and you will receive it after ordering in your hands in 6 weeks. Teudat Zehut is sent by mail, and Darkon is brought by courier.

Darkon is given for one year. If you live in Israel 75% of the time during the first year, you can apply for Darkon for 5 years. In five years, by ten, if three of those five years have been spent in Israel in total.

WHERE TO LIVE AND WORK

It is best to take care of choosing a place to live in the country of origin. Read, look up, figure out. There are a lot of immigrant bloggers who talk about life in different cities of Israel. If you do not like the place that you have chosen in absentia, in the first year you can travel around the country (fortunately it is not very big) and choose what you like already on the spot. Everything matters: nature, and the apartment, and the city or village itself, and the school for the child, and work.

About work. If you want to get a job in your specialty, when you go to the ministry of Aliya, take your diplomas with you. They will be sent to Jerusalem for confirmation. Everything is individual, it depends on the specialty, somewhere such a procedure is enough, for some specialties it will be necessary to obtain a license and pass an exam in Hebrew. The certification process will take at least three months. While the essence and the matter, take on any work, because the absorption basket will be enough to pay for the apartment. You have to earn a living. It would be nice to get an official job according to Teudat Zehut, even as a cleaner, so that the money goes to the account. But, in such a situation, how will it work out? The fact is that if you come from Russia or Belarus, you are unlikely to be able to put the money that you are allowed to bring into the account because of the sanctions. In some banks it is possible, but quite a bit. And transactions for cash in Israel are allowed no more than 6,000 shekels. So the account needs to be replenished. After all, money for an apartment and utilities will also be debited from the account. We must be prepared for the fact that in the beginning it will not be very easy.

But here the sun always shines, the sea splashes, something blooms and smells! And you will succeed!