Temporary Residency in Israel: What a Temporary Residence Permit Confers, and What It Does Not
"Temporary residency" is the everyday name for what the law calls a temporary residence permit. It is a real intermediate status, with an identity card and a route to permanent residence, but the rights many attribute to it do not come with it automatically, and that difference is what decides cases.
“Extending a temporary permit is not a technical renewal. At every extension it is examined afresh whether the conditions under which the permit was issued still hold.”
Adv. Liat Karskas · Head of the Personal Status & Immigration Department
What a temporary residence permit is, and why "temporary" misleads
The Entry into Israel Law sets four grades of residence permit, and the third of them is the temporary residence permit, issued for a period of up to three years. This is the grade in which most long-term procedures for regulating status are conducted, and its holder is a temporary resident: neither a tourist nor a visitor, but not a permanent resident either.
The name "temporary residency" misleads in two directions. It sounds short, whereas in practice people live in this status for years, sometimes more than four. And it sounds like residency in every respect, whereas recognition of residence for National Insurance and health-fund purposes is an entirely separate procedure, described below.
Normative source: Entry into Israel Law, 5712-1952, section 2(a)(3). Checked September 2026.
The five A-series permits
The Entry into Israel Regulations define five temporary residence permits, each tied to a purpose: A/1 for a person entitled to an immigrant visa who is examining the possibility of settling, A/2 for studies or training, A/3 for a member of the clergy, A/4 for a relative of a visa holder, and A/5 for a purpose not among these. The full detail, alongside the B-series visitor visas, is on the types of visas and residence permits page.
The distinction between the permits is not technical. It determines who is entitled to an identity card, what is examined at extension, and what the next possible step is, so the first question in every case is exactly which permit is written in the passport.
Normative source: Entry into Israel Regulations, 5734-1974, regulation 6. Checked September 2026.
The A/5 permit, who receives it and what it confers
The A/5 permit is the residual permit of the series, and precisely for that reason it is the most significant in practice: it is issued to a person who wishes to stay in Israel for a purpose that has no dedicated category, first among them the advanced stage of the graduated procedure for regulating a foreign spouse's status. On the couple tracks it is issued after a period on a B/1 permit, and its total length is set in the procedure of each track.
Holders of A/1 and A/5 permits receive an Israeli identity card, unlike holders of A/2 and A/4, who are not entitled to one. This identity card, known as a temporary one, is the visible difference between a temporary resident and a visitor-visa holder, and it is also a source of common confusion: an identity card in hand is not recognition of residence for National Insurance purposes. These are two institutions and two separate examinations.
Normative source: Entry into Israel Regulations, regulation 6(e); National Insurance Institute insurance circular 1340, section 1. Checked September 2026.
National Insurance and the health fund: recognition is not automatic
Under section 2A of the National Insurance Law, the residence of holders of A/1, A/2, A/5 and A/4 permits is examined only after a minimum period of stay in Israel of 183 days, consecutive or not. Until the end of that period the National Insurance Institute treats the permit holder as a non-resident, both for insurance cover and for the duty to pay, and the determination of status is made by an official and not automatically.
Recognition itself is made under the centre-of-life test, on the basis of a residence questionnaire for holders of temporary residence permits, a copy of the entries and exits in the passport for counting the days, and evidence of a connection to Israel: a declaration of intent to stay permanently, purchase of a flat or a lease of at least a year, a spouse and children in Israel, and permanent employment. Only after recognition is registration with a health fund made.
The practical conclusion is to count the 183 days in advance, to keep the passport with the entry and exit stamps, and to file the application for recognition close to the end of the period rather than wait for the system to do so, because it does not.
Normative source: National Insurance Law [Consolidated Version], 5755-1995, section 2A; National Insurance Institute insurance circular 1340 (general 49/06), sections 1 to 3. Checked September 2026.
Length of the permit and its extension
The law allows a temporary residence permit to be issued for a period of up to three years, and to be extended for periods each of which does not exceed two years. In practice the periods are set in the procedures of each track: for the spouse of an Israeli citizen the A/5 permit is extended every two years up to four years in total, for the spouse of a permanent resident it is issued for one year and extended up to three years, and on the cohabitation track four or five years according to the status of the Israeli partner.
Every extension is a fresh examination. In the graduated procedure the genuineness of the relationship and the centre of life in Israel are examined at every extension, and a long stay abroad in the middle of the period is among the common reasons for questions at the bureau. At the end of the ladder, and only there, the application for naturalisation or permanent status is examined. The Minister may replace a permit of a shorter type with one of a longer type or with permanent residence, and this is the power under which the move is made.
Normative source: Entry into Israel Law, sections 2(a)(3), 3(3) and 4; Population Authority procedures 5.2.0008, 5.2.0011 and 5.2.0009. Checked September 2026.
When an extension is refused or the permit is revoked
The Minister of the Interior may, at the Minister's discretion, revoke a residence permit that was issued, and a person whose permit expired and was not extended becomes an unlawful resident under the Entry into Israel Law. The extension application is therefore filed while the permit is still valid, and not after it has expired: an application filed after expiry is examined from a different starting point.
A decision to refuse an extension or to revoke a permit may be appealed to the Appeals Tribunal within thirty days from the day the decision was published, delivered or came to the appellant's knowledge, whichever is earliest. That deadline, and what follows it, are set out on the administrative appeal page.
Normative source: Entry into Israel Law, sections 11(a)(2), 13(a) and 13כד(b). Checked September 2026.
In summary
Temporary residency is a temporary residence permit: an intermediate status with an identity card, with a length set in the law and the procedure, and with a route to permanent residence. What does not come with it automatically is recognition of residence for National Insurance and health-fund purposes, which is examined separately, only after 183 days, and according to the centre of life.
Managing this status requires following two timetables in parallel, that of the Population Authority and that of the National Insurance Institute, records gathered over time, and keeping to the extension and appeal deadlines, and professional legal representation by a lawyer who specialises in the field.
Contact us to examine the status you hold and for information on the options available to you.
Questions and answers on temporary residency
What is the difference between a temporary resident and a permanent resident?
Does a temporary resident receive an identity card?
Is a temporary resident insured by National Insurance and a health fund?
For how long is a temporary residence permit issued?
What is the difference between an A/5 permit and a B/1 permit?
I stayed abroad for a long period. Does it affect the extension?
The extension was refused. What now?
All pages of the Personal Status & Immigration Department
Routes and statuses
Graduated procedure for a foreign spouseA foreign spouse: what it is actually likeTemporary residency and the A/5 permitPermanent residency in IsraelCommon-law spousesMixed marriagesStatus of children under the Temporary OrderFamily reunificationBirth registration when one parent is a residentCitizenship and legislation
The Citizenship Law and Israeli citizenshipNaturalization of permanent residentsRefusal of a citizenship applicationThe Entry into Israel LawTypes of visas and residence permitsLet's make sure your two timetables are in step
A short diagnostic call with a lawyer from the department, in which we check which permit is written in the passport, when the extension is due, and whether and how to file an application for recognition of residence with the National Insurance Institute now.