JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Easier aliyah?

By Uriel Heilman · October 28, 2008

Is Israel making it easier for North Americans who move to Israel? The Jerusalem Post has a story today that suggests Israel's Absorption Ministry has become more Anglo-friendly, streamlining some of the bureaucratic paperwork and generally making it easier for North Americans to move to Israel and land on their feet. Is this true? We invite our readers for have experienced this to respond.

Here's an excerpt for the JPost story:

"It is a huge benefit for new immigrants," says one expert. "The whole process today is hugely different to how it was in the past. Even the basket of aliya benefits was just a dream when I made aliya in 1975. It only existed for those who came from countries of distress."

Part of the changes, he claims, come from improved technology enabling those about to make aliya to be processed in their native country and have much of the fine details of their immigration worked out beforehand.

"Anyone who arrives today can go straight to the Immigrant Absorption Ministry's office in the airport and receive their ID card and immigration ID before they even pick up their luggage," he says. "All that's left for the immigrant to do is to go to the ministry's offices to give them their new bank account details and to receive a voucher for ulpan."