On July 10, 1994, a resident of Jerusalem filed an application for family unification with her husband, a resident of the OPT. It took the Ministry of Interior four and a half years to approve the application. The husband entered the graduated family unification procedure and received a stay-permit. A year later, the Ministry of Interior approved the extension of the permit for 15 additional months.
At the time, under the graduated procedure, the husband was supposed to receive temporary residency status (an A-5 visa) after 27 months of stay-permits. Despite this, in July 2001, after the husband completed the 27-month period – he received another referral to the DCO to obtain stay-permits for one more year. The Ministry of Interior claimed the family had not submitted all the relevant forms (this despite the fact that the family was never asked for additional documents). Yet, even after a clarification interview with the couple at the Ministry of Interior office, the husband was not given an A-5 visa, as required under the graduated procedure.
On May 12, 2002, the Government of Israel passed
Resolution No. 1813, according to which, pending new policy, no new family unification applications for status in Israel by OPT residents would be admitted. The government also decided that the individuals who had already entered the graduated procedure would remain with whatever status they had, without upgrades. A year later, the Knesset passed
the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order) 5763-2003, institutionalizing the freeze on family unification with OPT residents.
In May 2010, following some
legal developments on this issue, HaMoked applied for temporary residency status (A-5 visa) for the husband. HaMoked argued that the husband had not been granted the visa as a result of long delays on the part of the Ministry of Interior and that he had received stay-permits for more than 27 months even before the government resolution.
The Ministry of Interior denied the request. HaMoked appealed. The ministry rejected the appeal as well. In October 2010,
HaMoked filed an application for further review to the ministry’s Appellate Committee for Foreign Nationals.
On February 12, 2012,
the appellate committee accepted HaMoked’s request, stating that the husband will receive temporary status in Israel. The committee found that the husband did not receive status prior to the government resolution as a result of “unjustified delays” and “inaction” on the part of the Ministry of Interior.
And so, more than 17 years after starting the process, the husband of an Israeli resident, who has been living in Jerusalem for almost 20 years, will finally receive temporary status in Israel, as well as national health insurance and other social security rights.
