The government is seeking to ease the transfer of professional credentials and licensing for new immigrants to Israel, with a broad plan presented by the Aliyah and Integration Ministry on Sunday.
On Monday, the Knesset passed a law to approve the acceptance of lawyers trained abroad into Israel’s legal fraternity.
As part of the Sunday licensing plan, as of October, all ministries will allow aspiring immigrants to submit applications for the acceptance of their respective professional credentials when they open aliyah files. New immigrants will be able to work in their profession under temporary licenses once they arrive in Israel.
To expedite the professional integration process, the ministry will seek the ability to recognize the academic credentials and education of olim. A government center will also be established in January to consolidate all information and requirements of obtaining licensing for different professions. The center will create a multi-language website and application.
In cooperation with the Justice Ministry, the Aliyah Ministry will advance legislation to ease the process of obtaining professional licenses.
The Bar Association Bill to transfer to the Justice Ministry the authority to recognize foreign legal qualifications passed in its second and third readings on Monday. The law will apply to those who have practiced law abroad for an as of yet undetermined amount of time. A Knesset committee will establish standard requirements for the acceptance of foreign lawyers.
Simplified licensing for immigrants
“This bill joins the many actions we here in the Knesset and all its parties are doing to help the integration of olim and deal with the barriers to aliyah in every possible way,” said MK Simcha Rothman. “The current bill is of utmost importance for lawyers who are olim.”
In addition to the field of law, the Aliyah Ministry emphasized that it wants to ease licensing in the fields of medicine.
The ministry said Sunday that each year, 10,000 olim came to Israel with professions that required additional licensing in Israel, regardless of their country of origin and their standards. Director-General Avichai Kahana said in a statement that his ministry and the Central Bureau of Statistics found that 25% of Western olim were professionals in highly skilled and valued professions that required credential transfers.
The ministry expected that more Jews from developed countries would be motivated to make aliyah due to the eased process, and Kahana noted that significant waves of immigration were shown to have contributed a 1% increase in labor productivity. The ministry estimated that the streamlining of the credential transfer process would result in the infusions of NIS 1.5 billion ($390 m.) over ten years into the state.
“The research we conducted in the ministry indicated that the regulatory and bureaucratic barriers faced by olim are among the highest in the world,” Kahana said. “Many professionals can currently move from France to England or from Germany to the Netherlands without issue, but when they make aliyah to Israel, they sometimes have to go through unjustified steps. The licensing process takes an average of one and a half to two years. This makes it difficult for olim to earn a respectable living.”
Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer said that the decision is revolutionary for new olim, and called on the Israeli public to welcome new immigrants into Israeli society.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.