Making Aliyah in 2026: the complete guide to moving to Israel

What Aliyah is

Aliyah (עלייה, 'ascent') is immigration to Israel by a Jew or an eligible family member under the Law of Return (חוק השבות), enacted in 1950. Unlike almost every other immigration system in the world, Aliyah is not a visa you apply for and wait to be granted — it is a right. An eligible person who lands in Israel becomes an Israeli citizen the same day, with a settlement grant, subsidised healthcare and education, and a decade of tax relief on their foreign income. A person who immigrates this way is an oleh (plural olim).

That right, and the legal line it draws around who holds it, is the whole of the story below. This guide covers exactly who qualifies, the separate routes open to people who don't, who runs the process, and what you actually receive on the other side.

The Law of Return: exactly who qualifies

The Law of Return opens with a single sentence: 'Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh.' Two later amendments define who that covers.

The 1970 amendment defines a Jew, for the purposes of the law, as a person born to a Jewish mother, or who has converted to Judaism, and who is not a member of another religion. This is a legal eligibility test, not a religious ruling: the two elements — Jewish maternal descent or conversion, and not professing another faith — both have to be met.

The same 1970 amendment (Section 4A) then extends the rights of an oleh to the family of a Jew, even where those relatives are not themselves Jewish under the definition above. The right runs to:

• a child of a Jew, and that child's spouse;
• a grandchild of a Jew, and that grandchild's spouse — the widely used 'grandchild clause';
• the spouse of a Jew.

So the reach is three generations plus spouses at each level. A person with one Jewish grandparent — through either parent — can make Aliyah even though they are not Jewish under halacha or under the law's own definition. The great-grandchild of a Jew is generally outside the law unless another qualifying link exists.

Routes for non-Jews

If you don't qualify under the Law of Return, Aliyah is not available — but living in Israel is. Immigration for non-Jews runs through the Population and Immigration Authority (רשות האוכלוסין וההגירה) under the Ministry of the Interior, on ordinary visas. These paths lead to residency and, in time, to naturalised citizenship rather than to instant citizenship.

The spouse route is the most common path to citizenship for non-Jews. It is a deliberately graduated, multi-year process: a B/1 work visa while background and security checks run, then A/5 temporary residency, then permanent residency, with the Ministry of the Interior assessing the genuineness of the relationship and the couple's centre of life throughout. Naturalisation under Section 5 of the Citizenship Law is discretionary in every case.

Who runs Aliyah — and the process

Three bodies handle Aliyah, and it helps to know which does what:

• Nefesh B'Nefesh (nbn.org.il) — runs Aliyah for olim from North America and the United Kingdom in cooperation with the Israeli government. It builds your eligibility file, coordinates approvals, staffs a dedicated Aliyah flight or arranges your travel, and processes your oleh status and rights on arrival.
• The Jewish Agency for Israel (הסוכנות היהודית) — the global body that reviews and approves Aliyah eligibility worldwide and issues the Aliyah visa through its shlichim (emissaries) and consular partners.
• The Ministry of Aliyah & Integration (משרד העלייה והקליטה, 'Misrad HaKlita') — the Israeli ministry that pays the settlement grant and delivers integration benefits once you are an oleh.

The sequence, for a typical North American or UK applicant, is: open a file and gather proof of Jewish eligibility (birth, marriage and, for the grandchild clause, grandparents' records, plus a letter from a recognised rabbi where relevant) → Jewish Agency eligibility review and approval → Aliyah visa issued → fly → at Ben Gurion, receive your teudat oleh (immigrant certificate) and Israeli ID, and begin drawing the settlement grant. Elsewhere in the world the same eligibility review runs through the Jewish Agency directly rather than Nefesh B'Nefesh.

Citizenship and the Israeli passport

An oleh becomes an Israeli citizen on arrival and Israel permits dual citizenship, so making Aliyah does not require giving up your existing nationality — see our guide to dual citizenship in Israel. You receive a teudat zehut (national ID) immediately; the biometric darkon (passport) follows, though a first passport is now typically issued after an initial period of residence rather than on day one.

The Israeli passport is strong: in the 2026 Henley Passport Index it sits around 18th globally, with visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to roughly 165 destinations. Our Israel passport visa-free guide keeps the current list. Note that citizenship also carries obligations, including potential military-service liability for younger olim and their children.

The 10-year tax exemption

Israel's headline incentive for immigrants sits in Section 14 of the Income Tax Ordinance. A new immigrant (oleh hadash) — anyone becoming an Israeli tax resident for the first time — and a veteran returning resident (toshav hozer vatik, an Israeli back after at least ten consecutive years abroad) both receive a 10-year exemption from Israeli tax on foreign-source income and capital gains.

For those ten years, income arising outside Israel is generally untaxed in Israel: foreign dividends, interest, rental income, foreign business profits, most foreign pensions, and gains on the sale of foreign assets. Israeli-source income is taxed normally throughout. (A more limited ordinary returning resident category, for Israelis back after six years abroad, gets narrower, shorter reliefs — not the full package.)

The exemption interacts with your home country's tax system, which does not stop at Israel's border — US citizens in particular remain taxable by the IRS regardless of the Section 14 holiday. See our guide to tax residency in Israel for how residency is actually determined and how the exemption is claimed.

The absorption basket (sal klita) and olim benefits

The sal klita ('absorption basket') is a cash settlement grant from the Ministry of Aliyah & Integration — not a loan, and not means-tested. It is paid as a lump sum at the airport, a bank-opening payment, and six monthly instalments over your first half-year. Figures below are the amounts in force from 1 January 2026.

Beyond the cash, olim receive a package that typically includes: free or heavily subsidised ulpan (intensive Hebrew instruction); customs and purchase-tax breaks on importing personal goods and on buying an appliance or a first vehicle; reduced arnona (municipal tax); property-tax relief on a first home; and rental assistance in the early period. Nefesh B'Nefesh also runs employment and professional-licensing support to help olim re-enter their careers.

Healthcare, banking and education in brief

Healthcare. Israel has universal health coverage under the National Health Insurance Law, delivered through four HMOs (kupot holim). New olim are entitled to enrol and, importantly, receive an initial period of state-funded coverage before National Insurance (Bituach Leumi) contributions begin — details in our healthcare in Israel guide.

Banking. Olim can open an Israeli account on arrival (the sal klita includes a bank-opening payment), though as an immigrant you should expect standard compliance and source-of-funds checks; our banking in Israel guide walks through opening and running an account.

Education. State schooling is free and olim children get language and integration support; there is also a well-developed private and international sector — see international schools in Israel.

Cost and timeline

Aliyah itself is close to free: the Jewish Agency and Nefesh B'Nefesh subsidise or cover the Aliyah flight, and there is no government fee for the immigration right. Your real costs are document gathering and apostilles, translations, temporary accommodation and the move itself. The sal klita then partially offsets your first six months.

Timeline. For a straightforward Law-of-Return applicant with clean paperwork, opening a file to landing commonly runs about four to eight months, driven mostly by document collection and the eligibility review. Grandchild-clause cases and conversions can take longer where records are harder to prove. The non-Jewish routes are different in kind: the spouse-of-a-citizen path is a graduated process of roughly four to five years before naturalisation.

How Expectat helps you get there

Aliyah is generous, but the eligibility line, the paperwork and the tax interaction with your home country are unforgiving of guesswork — and 2026 changed the reporting rules. We help you get the numbers and the sequence right before you commit.

• Map your eligibility and your numbers — which route you actually qualify for, the documents that will prove it, and what the sal klita and Section 14 exemption are worth in your situation.
• Model the cross-border tax picture — how the 10-year foreign-income exemption interacts with your current residency and citizenship, including the new 2026 reporting obligations.
• Execute on the ground with vetted local partners — immigration counsel, an Israeli tax adviser and relocation support in-country.

Ready to see whether Aliyah is your best route into Israel and what it saves you? Book a strategy call.