Hundreds of foreign nationals, principally from the UK, who received approval for their entry permit applications before the country was added to Israel’s red-list will have to reapply for new permits after the Population and Immigration Authority annulled the validity of their original authorizations.
With the Population and Immigration Authority already facing a heavy burden of entry permit applications from around the world, the government body will now likely be flooded with hundreds of new applications that it has already approved.
This will likely contribute to new delays and problems to the already heavily encumbered application process when restrictions on the UK are removed, beginning this Sunday.
Efforts are ongoing to redress the situation.
On July 30, the government added the UK to its so-called red list of countries with high rates of corona infections, meaning that the criteria for entry into Israel for UK residents became extremely limited.
In April, the government reopened the borders to foreign nationals with first-degree relatives living in Israel and allowed them to enter for any reason.
Permits granted are valid for 30 days.
In the run-up to July 30, many hundreds of UK citizens and residents with immediate family in Israel received approval for their entry permit applications, according to the Yad L’Olim organization.
But when the government restrictions on entry into Israel for people coming from the UK, together with Turkey, Georgia and Cyprus, came into effect on July 30, the Population Authority stated that any permits that had been granted to citizens from those countries were now null and void.
Yad L’Olim estimates that hundreds of people, mostly from the UK, received permits in the period from July 16 to July 30, which were then canceled.
According to the organization, it has dealt with dozens of people who received such permits but never received notice that they had been canceled, although the Population Authority says such messages were indeed sent.
This week, however, the government reversed its restrictions on a number of countries, including the UK, starting this Sunday.
Permits that were issued between July 16 and July 30 would therefore still be valid, had the Population Authority not annulled them.
The authority has insisted however that the permits are void and that applications must be resubmitted.
Permits received through the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the consulates were also voided.
“The list of countries with a high risk [of COVID-19] infection is updated by the Health Ministry every so often,” the Population and Immigration Authority said in response. “As has been published more than once, any country included on the list – entry permits that were approved – become invalid upon the entry of that country to the list. This principle applies to all countries defined as high risk, including Britain, and after it is removed from the list new applications must be submitted.
“We clarify again that the policy for foreign citizens entering the country over the last year and a half is that there is no entry into the country, except for exceptional cases, and giving the message that the entry of foreign nationals is something routine deceives the public.”
Rabbi Dov Lipman, founder and head of Yad L’Olim, said in response: “I cannot understand this decision. It brings unnecessary work for the ministries and means unnecessary anxiety for applicants. It is not too late, and I hope they reconsider the decision. I am doing what I can to lobby for a reversal of this decision.”
Lipman also panned the Population Authority’s response, due to its implication that applications from so-called orange countries with fewer restrictions will still only be approved in exceptional circumstances.
“All first-degree relatives are allowed to enter Israel from orange countries as are grandparents for weddings and family members of lone soldiers,” said Lipman “There are hundreds of thousands of requests for entry from people in these categories. This is not just an allowance for extreme cases but, rather, something much broader. I hope the ministry will clarify what it meant by those puzzling words that are contradicted by what’s happening on the ground, and by the hard work of the dedicated ministry staff themselves.”