On October 29, 2023, Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority (PIBA) announced that all non-work visas due to expire within the next three months are extended until February 8, 2024. After this period, if there is no further notice, visa extension must be carried out as per the usual procedures.
The work visa extension process at the Interior Ministry for expiring B-1 expert work visas is currently not operating as usual. Instead, the Ministry is acknowledging the submission of extension applications and automatically extending the visas for one month at a time.
On October 30, 2023, PIBA announced a three-month extension of the work permits of all foreign nationals in the domestic nursing and agriculture sectors who are in Israel and whose work permit has expired or will expire between the dates October 7, 2023, and January 7, 2024.
- On November 1, 2023, the government announced a further series of measures to recruit foreign national workers in the agriculture sector, which is currently experiencing a manpower crisis. These include allowing the immediate entry of 5000 foreign nationals to work in the sector, including foreign nationals who previously stayed in Israel in recognized agricultural training programs, who will be recruited by licensed private agricultural bureaus, not within the framework of bilateral agreements.
- Ministers also announced the implementation of existing bilateral agreements and the extension of a fast-track process to more countries of origin.
Approximately 7,800 foreign agricultural workers have left Israel, out of approximately 30,000 foreign agricultural workers who worked in Israel before the fighting began. In addition, during this period it was decided not to allow the entry into Israel approximately 20,000 Palestinian workers in the agricultural sector.