Israel is a country with a very high standard of living, medicine and education, so it often happens that a person, who has Jewish roots but does not have the citizenship of Israel, wishes to receive it and return to his historical homeland. This procedure is called repatriation.
Repatriation to Israel (also "aliyah") ) – is the process of returning to the homeland or acquiring Israeli citizenship by people with Jewish roots who currently have a passport of another country.
This procedure became possible thanks to the adoption of the "Return Act" by the Israeli Knesset in 1950 granting the right for repatriation to every Jew and since then the number of citizens who have availed themselves of such a right is constantly growing.
Aliyah in Israel: Grounds for obtainment
According to the legislation, you can expect to obtain Israeli citizenship and return to a permanent place of residence in the country in such cases:
The main provisions of this document are as follows:
- Roots on the maternal line. You are a true Jew, if on the mother's line you have a female Jewish relative (grandmother, great-grandmother, etc.).
- Roots on the paternal line. You will be considered a Jew if on the paternal line you have a Jewish relative up to the third female tribe (maximum great-grandmother) or a Jewish relative up to the second male tribe (maximum grandfather).
- Conversion to Judaism. Upon acceptance of Judaism, you are automatically considered a Jew. But this method has many nuances.
If you have one of the parents who has Israeli citizenship, but you were born outside the country - you have the right for repatriation.
In this case we are talking about teenagers born in Israel and/or living in the country, who then moved to another country under the age of 14 years. Also, a continuous stay in another state must be at least 4 years.
It should be noted that it is sufficient to fall under one of these criteria in order to obtain the right for repatriation.
How passes the process of preparation for repatriation in Israel
The procedure of repatriation includes the following main stages:
Contact the Sokhnut office
This agency can advice you during each stage of alliyah in Israel.
Verification in the Embassy
You shall confirm your right for repatriation by submitting all required documents.
Choice of repatriation program
There are several options of such programs to choose from, in each case, the choice is individual.
After going through all the stages, in particular, confirming your rights and filing all the necessary documents to get Israeli citizenship or return there for permanent residence, you just have to decide on the date of your flight and book a free air ticket.
Documents for obtaining Israeli citizenship (repatriation)
Just want to say that the list of documents that will be needed for future immigrants is very large and in each case is individual.
The Consul can ask you for absolutely any document that he deems necessary. But we can acquaint you with the standard list, and it looks like this:
- Birth certificate (yours, your parents, grandmothers, grandfathers);
- Marriage/divorce certificate from civilian registry office (yours and your parents);
- Police clearance certificate;
- Educational documents;
- Internal and international passport;
- Employment record card, military ticket (if any) and others.
In a word, collect all the papers that are, sometimes you may even need photos from family archives. Also, when submitting documents to the Consulate, the presence of all members of the family willing to get aliyah to Israel is obligatory.
Help in preparing documents for repatriation in Israel
For more than 5 years our company has been helping to prepare documents for citizens wishing to work, study or move abroad and repatriation to Israel from Ukraine and other countries is no exception. If you do not have enough documents from civilian registry office, please contact us for their discovery or issuing police clearance certificate.
We hope that on this page you have learnt a little about what is the repatriation, in next articles we will describe in detail each aspect of this process.
