I'm Israeli does my son need visa for yeshiva in Israel

e1234

Tue, Jun 28 2016, 2:03 pm

officially no (unless they don't know)
but he needs a teduat zehut as he is israeli because you are

I had this - my mother was born in israel
they did not catch on when I had visa's in seminary
only when I went for a work visa did they realize it and I ended up leaving as a citizen

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Jun 28 2016, 2:07 pm

amother wrote:

My son is going to yeshiva in Israel in September. I'm Israeli. Does my son need a visa? What about the army. We didn't visit Israel for more than a decade. All my family is in the US.

I think you should get in touch with nefesh bnefesh and possibly the israeli consulate to find out for sure, but I think if you are an israeli citizen and you have a teudat zehut, your son is automatically israeli and has a teudat zehut and cant get a visa and may have difficulties with regard to the army. Get in touch with those two offices. They can for sure help you out.

m in Israel

Tue, Jun 28 2016, 2:07 pm

Technically your son is Israeli, which means he does not need a visa but he does need an Israeli passport. He also does need to sort out his army exemptions. If not he may have trouble when he tries to leave back to the U.S.

If the Israeli government doesn't know he exists it is possible he will get away with coming in on a U.S. passport -- but I'm not sure it's worth the risk.

m in Israel

Tue, Jun 28 2016, 2:10 pm

heidi wrote:

Army will be a huge huge problem. Don't know where or how you should look into it, but maybe start by calling the Israeli embassy. Wouldn't want him arrested at the airport.

The army is not a "huge problem" -- it's just some bureaucracy. Since he has been living in chul since before the age of 14 and he is coming for less than a year, he has no obligation to do military service -- but he does nee to get the paperwork in order. The embassy is likely a good place to call.

amother

Scarlet

Wed, Jun 29 2016, 10:26 am

So sorry it's a "huge problem" for us to protect our own country. Gosh. The army is not a problem, the problem is the people who think they are better and more important than everyone else so they don't need to go! Without the army your son wouldn't have a yeshiva to go to in E"Y. Personally I have a problem with my husband risking his life and spending a month away from his family for people who have no hakarat hatov.

shabbatiscoming

Wed, Jun 29 2016, 10:28 am

amother wrote:

Bump

seriously? we gave you some good ideas and options of places to ge tin contact with. Why do you think you will for sure find an answer here? as opposed to calling the israeli consulate/embassy or nefesh bnefesh? They will know for sure one way or the other.

heidi

Wed, Jun 29 2016, 1:04 pm

amother wrote:

OOPS-- misunderstanding alert.
I said the army could be a huge problem for her son. Like it was for my cousin, born in Israel to American parents, raised in America till age 18, who almost got arrested at the airport when he came to learn for the year.
Personally, I have a son in a special forces unit currently serving in Jenin.

shabbatiscoming

Wed, Jun 29 2016, 3:15 pm

sungood wrote:

Get him a student visa and he shouldn't say anything about his Israeli family.
For instance if they ask him his mother's name and your name is chaya Suri, he should just say suri. Q. You have any family in Israel a. No

Lie? Seriously? Because that will for sure have a wonderful outcome if anything comes to the surface Rolling Eyes

And what a terrible thing to teach your child, wonderful chinuch, tell them to lie. Really?

Miri7

Wed, Jun 29 2016, 4:50 pm

Call the embassy - I don't think that we will shed much more light on this issue for you. FWIW, my MIL is Israeli, moved to the US when she was 4 or 5, but never renounced her citizenship. She had a lot of problems at the airport when she visited as a grown woman because she hadn't done army service. My DH has memories of her being detained at Ben Gurion when he was a small child.

Her children, as US citizens, did not ever have issues as children or adults. My MIL eventually gave up her Israeli citizenship just to make it easier to get in and out of Israel, she wasn't avoiding the army as she was well past army age and the married mother of several children.

So, call the embassy to see what visa is needed for the American-born son of an Israeli citizen to come and learn in Israel. I'm sure this happens all the time. What you don't want is for him to get hung up in bureaucracy by himself when he gets there. Much better for you to have it all figured out before he goes.

To me, army service isn't a "major problem" but having a child far away trying to sort through the visa and citizenship issues alone is a problem.

singleagain

Wed, Jun 29 2016, 4:55 pm

follow this link: http://www.israelishortcut.org.....id=65

it has very detailed answers to this question: Guide for Israeli Citizens Born Abroad and Children of Migrants Concerning Compulsory Army Service

all different sorts of situations, including studying in israel, and comes complete with links to the forms you need to download, print, fill out, and mail or fax in. with all the numbers and addresses needed.

amother

Wine

Wed, Jun 29 2016, 5:25 pm

I know someone who was in the same situation as your son and he was really screamed at in the airport for avoiding the army. He had been born in Israel to American parents and his parents left when he was 2. The authorities treated him terribly when he tried to come for yeshiva. It was literally traumatizing.

In the end, he had an uncle with some kind of protexia who got him permission to stay for one year and that was it. They told him he has to leave after a year and can never come back because he was a draft evader.

I love Israel and I live here, but the government has got to fix this ridiculous problem and recognize that someone who leaves the country as a baby is not evading the draft!

I know someone else who did what the poster above suggested. He told them his father's Hebrew name because he knew they had his father listed with his legal English name. He managed not to get caught for some time, but once when he went to renew his student visa, they figured it out and screamed at him and stamped the words Israeli Citizen all over his American passport!
He ended up washing his passport in the washing machine and then he applied for a new American passport. When they asked why he needed a new one he told them honestly that he had washed his passport in the washing machine, so they gave him a new one.

heidi

Wed, Jun 29 2016, 5:42 pm

amother wrote:

How inspiring.
A true ben Torah. Living the Torah he is learning. Puke

causemommysaid

Wed, Jun 29 2016, 5:43 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Lie? Seriously? Because that will for sure have a wonderful outcome if anything comes to the surface Rolling Eyes

And what a terrible thing to teach your child, wonderful chinuch, tell them to lie. Really?

Im not getting into the ethics here but many people have done what this poster is suggesting and did not end up having to register as a citizen and have to deal with the army.

They don't go checking into the background of every American kid who comes to the country for a year. If her son was never registered for a Teudat Zeut in Israel than there should not be any issues coming in as an American.

heidi

Wed, Jun 29 2016, 5:44 pm

Miri7 wrote:

To me, army service isn't a "major problem" but having a child far away trying to sort through the visa and citizenship issues alone is a problem.

OMG!! Once again, army service for me is NOT a major problem. I mean, it is, bcz. I worry day and night about my son and daven constantly that he should be safe. I meant for the OP. STOP everyone!!!