Translation Notice — This is an English translation of a Hebrew law and may contain inaccuracies. In any dispute or legal matter, the original Hebrew text as published in Reshumot (ספר החוקים) is the sole authoritative and legally binding version.

Law

Entry into Israel Law, 5712-1952

חוק הכניסה לישראל

Chapter II: Entry Procedures and Exit Procedures

Border Stations

[Amendment: 1966, 2001, 2018-4]

No person shall enter Israel or depart from it, whether an Israeli citizen or not, except through one of the border stations designated by the Minister of the Interior by Order published in the Official Gazette, and after having presented himself before a border control officer or border inspector at that station and produced before him a valid passport, travel document, or other document issued for that purpose by the Minister of the Interior; the Minister of the Interior may exempt a person from the provisions of this Section if, in his opinion, there are special circumstances justifying such exemption.

Departure from Israel

7a.

[Amendment: 2018-4]

(a)Notwithstanding any law, no person shall depart from Israel to any of the countries listed in Section 2a of the Prevention of Infiltration (Offences and Jurisdiction) Law, 5714–1954, and no Israeli citizen or resident of Israel shall enter, by any means, any of those countries, except with a permit from the Minister of the Interior or the Prime Minister (hereinafter – the permit grantor); in this subsection, "resident" means a person who holds a valid visa and license pursuant to Section 2(a)(3) or (4).

(b)A permit as referred to in subsection (a) may be general or individual, and the permit grantor may stipulate therein conditions, qualifications, or restrictions.

(c)A general permit under this Section, or any condition, qualification, or restriction contained therein (in this subsection – the permit), shall take effect upon its publication in the Official Gazette; where grounds for establishing the permit have crystallized in circumstances requiring its immediate application and it could not be published in the Official Gazette immediately, it shall be published by such other means as the permit grantor considers appropriate in the circumstances of the matter and which will bring it to the attention of the public, provided that it shall be published in the Official Gazette as soon as this becomes possible; where a permit has been published by other appropriate means as aforesaid, it shall take effect from the date of such publication, provided that the text published in the Official Gazette shall be the binding text.

[A departure permit for Egypt (Official Gazette 5739, 1841) has been granted to depart to and enter Egypt.]

[A departure permit for Jordan (Official Gazette 5755, 597) has been granted – to all persons in respect of whom no other decision has been made by the Minister of the Interior or by a person authorized by him for that purpose – to depart to and enter Jordan.]

[A general departure permit for Saudi Arabia (Official Gazette 5780, 3346) has been granted to those who wish to do so for purposes of religious worship during the Hajj period and for the performance of the Umrah, and to those who wish to do so for the purpose of participating in business meetings, seeking investments, or conducting business negotiations, for a period not exceeding ninety days, provided that prior to their departure from Israel they hold an invitation from a Saudi governmental entity and an entry visa to Saudi Arabia.]

Border Control

[Amendment: 2001, 2018-4, 2023-2]

(a)(1) A person responsible for a transport vehicle expected to arrive in Israel or to depart from it shall transmit to the Population and Immigration Authority the particulars appearing in the travel documents of the passengers and workers aboard the transport vehicle who are expected to arrive in Israel or to depart from it on that vehicle, as well as information regarding the transport vehicle, including its scheduled arrival date in Israel and point of origin, or its scheduled departure date from Israel and destination, as the case may be — all in the manner, at the times, and subject to the conditions prescribed by the Minister of the Interior; the Minister of the Interior may prescribe that such particulars shall be transmitted by electronic means, and that the obligation to furnish them shall not apply to classes of transport vehicles as he may prescribe.

(2)A person responsible for a transport vehicle that has arrived in Israel or is about to depart from it shall furnish the Border Control Officer or the border inspector, upon request, with a list of the passengers and workers present on that transport vehicle; the list shall include the particulars prescribed by the Minister of the Interior in Regulations made under this Law.

(3)Where a Border Control Officer has found that a person whose particulars were transmitted pursuant to paragraph (1) is not entitled to enter Israel or to depart from it, the Officer may notify the person responsible for the transport vehicle accordingly, and that person shall not carry such individual to or from Israel, as the case may be; this provision shall not apply to the carriage to Israel of an Israeli citizen, or of a resident as defined in the Population Registry Law, or of a holder of a visit permit authorizing temporary paid employment in Israel, who hold a return visa as defined in Section 5 or another visa for the purpose of returning to Israel, as the case may be, whose validity as granted prior to departure from Israel has not expired; nothing in this paragraph shall derogate from the provisions of Sections 9 and 10.

(b)A Border Control Officer may board any transport vehicle that has arrived in Israel or is about to depart from it, and conduct an inspection thereon; every person present on it, including every worker thereon, is required to present to the Border Control Officer, upon request, the documents and to provide him with the information relevant to the enforcement of this Law.

(c)In this Law —

"person responsible for a transport vehicle" — any of the following, as the case may be:

(1)with respect to an aircraft — an air operator as defined in the Aviation Law, 5771–2011;

(2)with respect to a vessel — the owner of the vessel, its captain, the person in control of it, its agent, or its representative;

(3)with respect to any other transport vehicle — the owner of the transport vehicle, a lessee of the transport vehicle, or its operator;

"Population Registry Law" — the Population Registry Law, 5725–1965;

"travel document" — a passport, a laissez-passer, a travel certificate, or any other identity document recognized by the Minister of the Interior by Order for the purpose of entry into and exit from Israel.

Retention and Deletion of Information

8a.

[Amendment: 2023-2]

(a)The Population and Immigration Authority shall retain information as referred to in Section 8(a)(1) concerning transport vehicles, including their scheduled arrival dates in Israel and points of origin, or their scheduled departure dates from Israel and destinations, with respect to an Israeli citizen or a resident as defined in the Population Registry Law (in this Section — the information), for a period not exceeding 90 days; upon the expiry of the said period, the information shall be deleted from every location in which it is stored.

(b)(1) The Population and Immigration Authority may transfer the information, in whole or in part, to the bodies listed in the First Schedule, for the purpose of fulfilling their functions under law, and subject to the conditions set out in that Schedule, provided that a person who has received information pursuant to this sub-section shall not transfer it to another party, and shall delete the information from every location in which it is stored no later than the end of the period referred to in sub-section (a).

(2)Notwithstanding the provisions of Chapter D of the Protection of Privacy Law, 5741–1981, and the provisions of any other law, the transfer of the information, in whole or in part, and its retention, are permitted solely in accordance with the provisions under this Section.

(c)Notwithstanding the provisions of sub-sections (a) and (b), the Population and Immigration Authority and any person who has received information pursuant to the provisions of sub-section (b) may refrain from deleting information relating to a specific individual if the information serves the investigation, prevention, or thwarting of an offence, or is used in proceedings to which the State is a party, provided that the information is necessary for the fulfillment of their functions; a person in possession of such information may retain it or transfer it to another, subject to the provisions of any law.

(d)The Minister of Justice, with the consent of the Minister of the Interior and with the approval of the Interior and Environmental Protection Committee of the Knesset, may, by Order, amend the First Schedule.

Examination of Entry Authorization

A person who arrives in Israel and wishes to enter it may be detained by a border control officer pending clarification of whether he is entitled to enter, and the border control officer may direct the place where he is to remain until the clarification is completed or until his departure from Israel.

Removal of Persons Not Entitled to Enter

10.

[Amendment: 2023-2]

(a)Where a person arrives in Israel and it is found that he is not entitled to enter it, the Minister of the Interior may remove him from Israel.

(b)A border control officer may detain such a person in a place and in a manner prescribed by the Minister of the Interior until his departure from Israel or until his removal therefrom.

(c)A person in charge of a carrier that has arrived in Israel is required, upon demand by a border control officer, to transport from Israel any person who arrived on that carrier with the intention of entering Israel and who has been found not to be entitled to do so.

Conditions for Granting a Visa and License to a Foreign Worker

10a.

[Amendment: 2000, 2010-2]

(a)No license and no visa shall be granted to a foreign worker pursuant to Section 2 unless a medical certificate within the meaning of Section 1b of the Foreign Workers Law has been provided and the fees pursuant to Section 1j of that Law have been paid.

(b)The Minister of the Interior may exempt a foreign worker from the requirement to provide a medical certificate; an exemption under this Section may be individual or may apply to categories of foreign workers, provided that an exemption in respect of categories of foreign workers shall be granted in consultation with the Minister of Health and with the Minister of Industry, Trade and Employment.

Need to cite this law in a foreign court?

Eli Shimony Israeli Attorneys-at-Law provides certified Expert Legal Opinions on Israeli law within 24–48 hours, accepted by courts worldwide.

Chapter III: Revocation of Permits and Offenses

Section A: Cancellation of Visas

Cancellation of Visas, etc.

11.

[Amendment: 1980, 2011-2, 2018-4]

(a)The Minister of the Interior may, at his discretion –

(1)cancel a visa granted under this Law, whether before or upon the arrival of the visa holder in Israel;

(2)cancel a residence permit granted under this Law.

(3)cancel a permit granted under Section 7a.

(a1)If the Minister of the Interior finds that a foreign worker, as defined in Chapter D1 of the Foreign Workers Law, to whom a visa and a visitor's residence permit were granted under this Law, was not employed in the field of occupation specified in his permit under Section 2(c) for a period exceeding 90 days, without special reasons being found that prevented that foreign worker or that category of foreign workers from finding employment in that field of occupation during the said period, the Minister of the Interior shall cancel the visa and the residence permit granted to the foreign worker, provided that the foreign worker was given an opportunity to state his arguments; the Minister of the Interior may authorize a foreign worker or a category of foreign workers to deviate from the period set as aforesaid if he finds that doing so is justified in the circumstances of the matter.

(b)The Minister of the Interior may, by a reasoned decision, cancel an immigrant visa and an immigrant certificate granted under the Law of Return, 5710–1950, if they were obtained by providing false information.

Cancellation of Permanent Residence Permit for Breach of Allegiance

11a.

[Amendment: 2018-3, 2023]

(a)Without derogating from the provisions of Section 11(a)(2), the Minister of the Interior may cancel a permanent residence permit granted under this Law (in this section – permit), inter alia, if it has been proven to his satisfaction that the permit holder has committed an act constituting a breach of allegiance to the State of Israel, provided that with respect to a person in whom one of the following circumstances applies – a permit shall not be cancelled as aforesaid except with the consent of the Minister of Justice and after consultation with the committee established under Section 11(h) of the Citizenship Law, 5712–1952:

(1)at the time of commission of the act, more than 15 years had elapsed from the date on which he received the permit;

(2)at the time of his birth, one of his parents held a permanent residence permit.

(a1)

(1)Without derogating from the provisions of subsection (a), if all of the following apply to a person, the Minister of the Interior shall notify him within seven working days of his intention to cancel his permit, and shall give him an opportunity to present his arguments within seven working days:

(a)he was convicted of an offense and the court that convicted him determined that the offense constitutes an act of terrorism, and if the offense was committed before the commencement of the Counter-Terrorism Law, 5776–2016 – it constitutes an act of terrorism based on the facts determined in the judgment in his matter, or he was convicted of an offense under Sections 97 to 99 of the Penal Law, 5737–1977, all provided that a sentence of actual imprisonment was imposed upon him;

(b)it has been proven, to the satisfaction of the Minister of the Interior, after giving that person an opportunity to present his arguments within seven working days, that he or someone acting on his behalf and with his knowledge received from the Palestinian Authority, directly or indirectly, remuneration or payment for the breach of allegiance to the State of Israel (hereinafter – funds linked to terrorism).

(2)For the purposes of this subsection, if the consent of the Minister of Justice as referred to in subsection (a) has not been given within seven working days, he shall be deemed to have given his consent.

(3)If the Minister of the Interior cancelled a person's permit as referred to in this subsection and the presumption referred to in subsection (b) has not been rebutted, the person shall be deported from Israel upon completion of the service of his sentence, pursuant to Section 13, to the territories of the Palestinian Authority, and his entry into Israel shall no longer be permitted.

(b)If the Minister of the Interior decided to cancel a permit pursuant to the provisions of this section, and found that following the cancellation that person would be left without a permanent residence permit outside Israel, without the possibility of acquiring the right of permanent residence outside Israel, or without citizenship, the Minister shall, shortly after the decision to cancel the permit, grant him a residence permit in Israel; for the purposes of this subsection, it is presumed that a person who resides permanently outside Israel, or who or someone acting on his behalf and with his knowledge received funds linked to terrorism, will not be left without a permanent residence permit outside Israel, without the possibility of acquiring the right of permanent residence outside Israel, or without citizenship.

(c)If a person whose permit was cancelled pursuant to this section filed an administrative petition with the Administrative Affairs Court against the decision of the Minister of the Interior, the Minister shall permit that person's entry into Israel until the conclusion of the proceedings arising from the Minister's decision, unless the Minister is satisfied that his entry into Israel poses a real danger to state security or public safety.

(c1)The Minister of the Interior shall report to the Interior and Environmental Protection Committee of the Knesset, once a year, on cases in which the circumstances referred to in subsection (a1)(1)(a) and (b) were met and the permit was not cancelled, and the reasons therefor.

(d)In this section –

Cancellation of Residence Permit of an Infiltrator Supporting His Country's Regime and His Removal from Israel

11b.

[Amendment: 5785-2]

(a)If the Minister of the Interior has determined that an infiltrator who received a residence permit in Israel pursuant to Section 2(a)(5) is a supporter of his country's regime, in accordance with an opinion submitted to him by the Director of the Population and Immigration Authority, and after giving that person an opportunity to present his arguments – it is presumed that the said person does not face a danger that prevents his removal to his country.

(b)If the presumption referred to in subsection (a) has not been rebutted, after the infiltrator has been given an opportunity to present his arguments in this regard within 30 days from the date on which notice of such a determination in his matter was delivered to him, the Minister of the Interior shall immediately cancel the residence permit granted to that person and shall remove him from Israel to his country in accordance with the provisions of Section 13.

(c)In this Section –

"infiltrator" – as defined in the Prevention of Infiltration (Offences and Jurisdiction) Law, 5714–1954;

"supporter of his country's regime" – a person who has expressed support, directly or indirectly, for the regime of his country, including maintaining a substantial connection with representatives of the governing institutions in his country, excluding such a connection that was intended for the performance of an act for which there is no other means of performance.

Cancellation of Residence Permit of an Infiltrator Convicted of an Offence and His Removal from Israel

11c.

[Amendment: 5785-2]

If an infiltrator as defined in Section 11b has been convicted of an offence punishable by three years of imprisonment or more, the Minister of the Interior shall cancel the residence permit granted to him and shall remove him from Israel upon the completion of his sentence, if the Minister has found that his stay in Israel is liable to endanger State security or public order, provided that he has given him an opportunity to present his arguments.

Report to the Knesset

11d.

[Amendment: 5785-2]

The Minister of the Interior shall report to the Interior and Environmental Protection Committee of the Knesset, once a year, on the implementation of Sections 11b and 11c, including the number of infiltrators whose residence permits were cancelled or who were removed from Israel pursuant to each of those Sections, in the year preceding the date of the report.

Preservation of Powers

11e.

[Amendment: 5785-2]

Nothing in the provisions of Sections 11b and 11c shall derogate from the power of the Minister of the Interior to remove an infiltrator to his country or to another country pursuant to any law, or from the power to detain an infiltrator in custody pursuant to any law, and nothing in the said provisions shall confer upon an infiltrator any status or rights that he would not have had but for these provisions.

Need to cite this law in a foreign court?

Eli Shimony Israeli Attorneys-at-Law provides certified Expert Legal Opinions on Israeli law within 24–48 hours, accepted by courts worldwide.

← Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next →

Page 2 of 6