Visa Renewal and Application, Health Insurance tips

WHAT KIND OF VISAS ARE PROVIDED?

Here we report the link of the various content that you can find in the official webpage of the Lowy International school.

Start your information journey from here: MAIN Page 

A/2 Student Visa 

B/1 Working visa

A/4 Spouse and Children visa (of a student/researcher)

NOTE Typically, PhDs and Postdocs are considered A2 category from the immigration point of view, therefore they are NOT considered workers.

One can work only upon these two types of visa:

A2 visa with “Permission to work” remark – This allows students who study towards a Master’s degree or above, to work only on a part-time basis (X hours per week), as a teaching assistant within the university, and in relation to the topic of studies.  The application process should be initiated before the beginning of the employment. It involves switching a regular student visa- which does not allow to work- with a new one with the permission to work remark.

B1 visa- This is a work visa, which allows to work as a lecturer or a researcher (also as a research assistant). This visa allows the employment on a full-time or a part time basis, with a monthly salary. The application process should be initiated at least 3 months before the beginning of the employment.  It involves an initial approval from TAU and the Ministry of interior. 

NOTE(1) Typically, Marie Curie Fellowship students are considered workers so they shall apply to B1 visa. However, this kind of scholarship will last only 3 years (in agreement with the European laws and conditions), so from the 4th year the scholar will receive the A/2 student visa and their scholarship readjusted according to the TAU regulations.

For any personal/special inquiry, please contact Tamar, the coordinator of the Visa office.

WHERE DO I START FROM?

To renew the visa, you need to fill this FORM* provided by TAU International Visa Office before the expiration of your visa, to have enough time to organize the paperwork and obtain an appointment at the Ministry of Interior offices.

UPDATE 2025: given the current situation, new visas should be required three months in advance (before the expiration) to have a valid visa in immediate continuity. 

Make sure you have all of the documents required in your case; some documents need an apostille, so they need to be processed beforehand.

WHAT DO THEY REQUIRE?

Check the list updated 2025 at this LINK

NOTES on each point of the list

Point 4. You are required to sign with your digital signature this "declaration" for which you commit to abstain for any activity and action that can endanger the state of Israel. 

Point 5 and 8. For the M.Sc and PhD students, the transcripts required in the Application process can be retrieved from MyTAU platform, clicking on the left menu on " Requests and Approvals" and then choose "Study certificates"; the same documents can be used as a "proof of payment". In this case, it is necessary to download the version that says "... with Tuition Data". 

For the postdocs, you need an enrollment confirmation from the Academic Secretariat and the letter from your supervisor stating the amount of scholarship to be paid during the postdoc (TAU cannot comment on future payments, it is done by supervisor only).

Point 6. The record of studies is the paper you can download from MyTAU platform, clicking on the left menu on " Requests and Approvals" and then choose "grades" and then "Courses and grades approvals". If you are a PhD entering your postdoc stage and your doctorate hasn't come yet, you can use the same paper for point 12.

Point 9. Once you purchased your health insurance, in between the papers of the payment/confirmation there is one that is supposed to be the certificate to present for the visa renewal, as a letter of support from the Insurance company.

Point 13. You can choose to upload a self-made picture that corresponds to the standards and the requirements for a passport picture (LINK) or to go to a dedicated shop around your area (print shops, photographer, stationary shops...). One nearby the university is "Zilum Chen" in  Aba Akhime'ir St 33, Tel Aviv-Yafo.

Point 14. To pay the visa fee, you need to follow the links and the instructions provided in the point14 of the list. You can use ONLY credit card, either an Israeli or a foreign one. IMPORTANTLY, this fee is for the procedure and it does not change according to the length of your visa. For example, if your visa is elongated for 7 months instead of 1 year, the visa fee will be the same (200NIS). As explained, the ones who wish to travel during their stay in Israel need to pay two fees: they have the same price, but one is for the basic visa, and the other one is for the re-entry one.

Point 16. The request for the student visa + working hours can be done if the PI proposes you as a TA (teaching assistant) and your faculty administration gives you permission.

EXTRA notes:

- Make sure you possess an housing contract or you can legally demonstrate you are a roommate of someone with a housing contract before you even start the visa process. If you are looking for a place to stay and you are in a temporary location, you can give the address and details of the place you are and add - as required - an explanatory statement.

-The 7 year rules is (as far as we understood) a rule imposed by the Ministry; people after 5 years of staying should provide more documents, the ones in Point 20. People exceeding 7 years of staying in the country should consider other type of visa.

-if you decide to opt for a partner visa of an Israeli person (as a student in TAU), get as much info as you can from The Israeli Association for International Couples, and consult with a lawyer to make sure your student status does not conflict with the change of the visa. We were reported that TAU Visa office is NOT involved into this situation, therefore the new (partner) visa application should be made independently.

WHICH INSURANCE SHOULD I PURCHASE?

Here some guidelines from the Lowy International School LINK regarding the main insurance companies.

NOTE (1) that in all of the insurance policies there are always some exceptions and not all of the medical issues are covered. For example late stage pregnancy, child delivery, psychological and psychiatric treatments are typically not included in the policies. As well, all of the medications that do not belong to the National Health Insurance Law, 1994, and the National Health Insurance Ordinance (Drugs in the Health Services Basket), 1995.

NOTE (2) it is reported that if you get injured in a traffic accident, the insurance provider won't cover the costs. Instead, they will be covered by the responsible party's insurance or by the Karnit, a governmental fund (HERE a website with some more details in English). It should be the same also for injuries and accidents related to war (but we don't have a clear picture of this issue as of now). Importantly, this coverage is available as long as one has a valid visa.

NOTE(3) War, Terrorism, Civil Unrest situations might not be covered by the health insurance.

NOTE(4) The cost of the insurance changes every year according to the CPI (Consumer Price Index).

NOTE(5) We recommend you to check what is the policy of your insurance regarding Sports/Extreme Activities and the vaccinations (remember Corona times?!)

NOTE(6) We remind you that - as of now - the Palestinian territories are NOT part of Israel sovereignty and therefore the Israeli Insurances do not work there.

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NEWS_2025 TAU has arranged a new partnership with PassportCard Insurance Agency, which covers the health treatments in CLALIT. HERE, the TAU int. school has a brief description of the plan.

WHERE IS THE MINISTRY OF INTERIOR?

NEWS_2024: we were recently told that the whole Visa renewal process can be done ON CAMPUS! No more need to go to the Ministry of Interiors!

TAU was registered at the Misrad Hapnim (Ministry of Interior) of Salame 53, Tel Aviv. As of now (2025) TAU is working with the Misrad Hapnim in Petach Tikva.

Although there is no strict prohibition to visit the Ministry independently, TAU Visa Office requests us not to do it, since they are handling the procedures in collaborations with the ministry.

Before taking unilateral initiative, speak with the TAU International School Visa Office and also with the researchers community to see how your issue could be handled or if something similar was handled before.

General recommendations

1. The process can take several weeks up to 2 months, so it is suggested to start preparing the papers and reserve a place in the waiting list 2-3 months ahead.
2. The people whose Visas status is pending are considered by law "not regular", but the de facto situation tolerates them, meaning that nobody will chase after them, and in case of trouble, TAU international School is ready to assist anyone as a International Student of TAU. 
3. Don't waste your time going into another office of the Ministry of the Interior, the chances that they will help you are very low since TAU is working with ONLY the Misrad Hapnim in Petach Tikva.
4. For the people terminally leaving Israel, there is no need to take action. You should be able to leave the country even if your visa is expired.
5. For the people who want to leave and return to Israel, but their visa is expiring/expired, it is strongly NOT recommended to leave the country. Exceptional cases will be evaluated and possibly (no guarantee) there might be an arrangement for a last-minute-urgent appointment by the Visa Office. It is possible (and it happened), that you will be required to come back to your native country and apply for a new visa from there.
6. Having an expired visa means also that you can't travel to Jordan or to Sinai (and come back), regardless if you travel alone or you join a guided tour.
7. For the people in need to return to Israel after the expiration of the visa is NO longer possible to shift from the Tourist Visa to the Student Visa once you are in Israel. The visa must be obtained from the Israeli embassy in your own country. 

For the people applying for a conference abroad: 

1. We got to know that, for example, to go to the US, there is no need for a valid Israeli Visa, but rather to be in time for an appointment to the embassy, which could take months as well!
2. In case of a conference in Europe, the Schengen visa strictly depends on a valid Israeli visa.

Those are informal notifications we got from the community, so we recommend to double check and not take this information for granted. Also please, if you found some errors or you have some updates, notify us!