Ending National Insurance residency on relocation: what happens to health insurance, and what happens when you return
People moving abroad usually ask one question: whether to stay registered with the National Insurance Institute. But that decision settles a second, quieter question: what happens to the family's health insurance, both while abroad and on the day they come back. The two laws are tied together, and residency ended in one is closed in the other.
"Ending National Insurance residency is not the end of a payment. It is the end of health insurance, on the same day, for the whole family."
Adv. and Notary Igal Mor
Two laws, one decision
The National Health Insurance Law grants every resident, in section 3(a), the right to health services. A "resident", under section 2 of that law, is a person who is a resident for the purposes of the National Insurance Law. The definition is not independent: entitlement to the health basket rests entirely on residency status at the National Insurance Institute.
It follows that the National Insurance Institute is also the body that determines who is insured with a health fund. Section 3A of the Health Insurance Law regulates the determination of residency for a person seeking to register with a fund, and registration itself runs through the Institute.
Ending residency at the National Insurance Institute is therefore not an isolated administrative step. It closes entitlement to health services on the same day, for the insured person and their minor children, and it starts a waiting mechanism for the day they ask to return.
National Health Insurance Law, 5754-1994, sections 2, 3(a) and 3A. Checked September 2026.
Who counts as an Israeli resident for National Insurance
The National Insurance Law does not define who is an Israeli resident. Section 2A of the law lists only those who are not residents, for example people present in Israel unlawfully or holding certain visitor visas. The positive definition was shaped by the case law of the labour courts around the centre-of-life test.
The Institute applies the test on two levels. The objective level: where the permanent home is, where the family members are, where the children go to school, where the main workplace and the assets are. The subjective level: how the person sees their own place. The Institute states expressly that in a request to end residency, the whole family unit is examined.
The practical result: physical absence alone does not end residency, and physical presence alone does not create it. A person working abroad for years while their family and home remain in Israel keeps, in most cases, a centre of life in Israel.
National Insurance Law [Consolidated Version], 5755-1995, section 2A; National Insurance Institute website, "Who is considered an Israeli resident". Checked September 2026.
The first five years: registration continues, and so does the duty
Under the Institute's policy, an Israeli resident who leaves for abroad remains registered as a resident during the first five years after departure. Registration does not stop by itself, and neither do the duties attached to it: payment of National Insurance and health insurance contributions continues during the stay abroad.
For someone employed by an Israeli employer, the employer keeps deducting. For someone employed by a foreign employer, the income is treated as income not from work for contribution purposes. Someone with no income pays minimum contributions at a fixed monthly amount, which the Institute updates every year.
Arrears in health insurance contributions during the stay abroad may harm entitlement to health services and to benefits. This is the rule many discover only on return: the registration stayed, the debt accumulated, and the entitlement was harmed.
As of September 2026, the minimum contribution for a person with no income is NIS 266 per month (from 1 January 2026). The amount is updated on 1 January.
National Insurance Institute website, "Paying contributions while abroad". Checked September 2026.
Ending residency at the insured person's request: the questionnaire and the declaration
A person who has fully moved their centre of life abroad does not have to wait five years. They may apply to the Institute to end their residency earlier. The application is made on the declaration of cancellation of residency (form BL/629), together with the residency questionnaire for a person staying abroad (form BL/627), which asks about the date and purpose of departure, the employer, foreign citizenship, where the spouse and children live, a home in Israel, bank accounts and sources of income.
Two rules of the Institute set the picture. First: in most cases residency is ended from the date of notice to the Institute, not retroactively. Second: a request to end residency will not be approved where the spouse and children remain in Israel.
A decision of the Institute on residency may be challenged by a claim to the Regional Labour Court, within twelve months of delivery of the decision. Residency is one of the common issues before the court, and the burden of proving a change in the centre of life lies on the person asserting it.
National Insurance Institute website, "Ending residency", forms BL/627 and BL/629, "Regional Labour Courts". Checked September 2026.
The day the health fund closes
Once residency is cancelled, entitlement to health services under the National Health Insurance Law ends. The declaration form itself warns: cancellation of residency ends the entitlement of the declarant and of their children under 18 to health services. The health fund is not an independent actor here: it receives notice of the insured person's status from the Institute and acts on it.
A non-resident can buy private health insurance, in Israel or in the country of residence, but these are commercial contracts and not a statutory right. The health basket, the medicines in it and continuity of care are not available to someone who has ceased to be a resident.
This point is decisive above all for people with an ongoing medical condition, for families with children, and for those moving to a country whose health system is expensive or limited. In such cases the residency question is first a question of medicine, and only then of contributions.
National Health Insurance Law, sections 2 and 3; form BL/629, declaration clause. Checked September 2026.
Coming back: the waiting period
Section 58 of the National Health Insurance Law sets a mechanism for a person absent from Israel for a long time. A "year of absence" is a period of twelve consecutive months during which the person lived outside Israel for at least about half the days of the year, and a "period of absence" is at least two consecutive years of absence. A person who was a resident before a period of absence is not entitled to health services for one month for every year of absence, up to a ceiling of six months. That is the waiting period.
A "month" here is not a calendar month but a period of consecutive days of presence in Israel, the number of which the law fixes, so that the waiting period runs only while the person is in the country. Health insurance contributions are payable during the waiting period too.
The Institute applies the mechanism to a person who stayed abroad for a long continuous period and did not pay health insurance contributions for at least a year, and to a person who ceased to be a resident. The law exempts from the waiting period an immigrant under the Law of Return, a person granted permanent residence for the first time, a minor, and a discharged soldier in the period after service.
As of September 2026: a year of absence is 12 months with 182 days outside Israel; a waiting month is 25 consecutive days of presence in Israel; the minimum waiting period is two months and the maximum six; the Institute calculates a waiting period for a person who stayed abroad 18 consecutive months and did not pay for at least 12 months; the discharged-soldier exception is 24 months.
National Health Insurance Law, section 58(a) and (b); National Insurance Institute website, "Calculating the waiting period". Checked September 2026.
Redeeming the waiting period
A person liable to a waiting period may redeem it. Section 58(d) defines a "special payment" as the health insurance contributions of an employee earning the national average wage, multiplied by thirty. The payment is made in one instalment or in equal consecutive monthly instalments, up to six, and a person who has paid is no longer liable to a waiting period from the end of the payment period.
The Institute adds three practical conditions: redemption is open to a person who has shown that their centre of life returned to Israel and has been recognised as a resident; medical services are provided only on completion of the instalments, except treatment abroad and fertility treatment; and the payment is not refunded, unless the payer did not return to Israel or it was decided not to regard them as a resident.
The choice between waiting and redeeming is a simple calculation on its face and a complex one in practice: the expected length of the waiting period, the medical situation of the family members, and the expected income in the waiting months, during which contributions are also payable.
As of September 2026, the special payment is NIS 16,860 (from 1 January 2026), in up to six instalments. The amount is derived from the average wage and is updated on 1 January.
National Health Insurance Law, section 58(d); National Insurance Institute website, "Redeeming the waiting period". Checked September 2026.
Four situations in which early termination is not the right step
Ending residency sometimes looks like the obvious step for someone who no longer lives in Israel. Four situations justify a pause before filing:
- The spouse or children remain in Israel. The Institute announces in advance that such a request will not be approved, and filing only opens an examination of the whole family unit.
- The health system in the destination country is expensive or limited. Someone who needs continuity of care may prefer to keep residency and pay contributions, and to revisit the question once the picture is clearer.
- Return is expected within a few years. A person who returns after termination enters a waiting period or redemption. A person who remained a resident and paid returns to the fund without waiting.
- Rights that depend on residency. Various benefits are conditional on residency at the time of the event. Early termination may close a right that has not yet been examined. See disability and National Insurance rights.
On the other hand, a person who stays registered without paying accumulates a debt and loses the entitlement anyway. The choice is not between termination and continuation, but between orderly termination and orderly continuation.
National Insurance Institute website, "Ending residency" and "Paying contributions while abroad". Checked September 2026.
In summary
In summary, National Insurance residency and entitlement to health services are one right in two laws. Registration continues during the first five years after departure, and with it the duty to pay. Termination at the insured person's request is made by declaration and questionnaire, takes effect in most cases from the date of notice, and closes the health fund on the same day for the insured person and their children. Return passes through the waiting period of section 58, or through its redemption.
The decision is hard not because of the rules but because of where the rules meet life: a medical condition, children, a spouse who stays, an unknown date of return, and the tax question examined in parallel. See ending residency for income tax and National Insurance.
Contact us to review your situation before relocation or on return, and to build a route that keeps the family's health covered at every stage.
What people ask us before relocation and on return
We moved abroad. Are we still insured with a health fund?
Can residency be ended before five years?
My spouse stays in Israel with the children. Can only my residency be ended?
What happens to the children when residency is ended?
We returned after years abroad. When can we rejoin the fund?
How much does it cost to redeem the waiting period?
The Institute rejected the request. What now?
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Foreign Residents DepartmentEstate of a foreign resident with assets in IsraelEnding residency for income tax and National InsuranceEnding residency and health insurance on relocationReal estate and tax
Appreciation tax exemption for a foreign residentTax on an inherited apartmentReal estate transaction taxesBefore ending residency, know what closes
A short assessment call in which we look at the family unit, the medical situation and the expected date of return, and decide whether termination, continued payment or waiting is the right route.