Center for the Defence of the Individual - The Ministry of Interior will grant a tourist visa to the minor children of residents of East Jerusalem whose status reinstatement request is being examined: the visa will not grant the children any social rights
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חזרה לעמוד הקודם
07.10.2018

The Ministry of Interior will grant a tourist visa to the minor children of residents of East Jerusalem whose status reinstatement request is being examined: the visa will not grant the children any social rights

On July 23, 2018, HaMoked submitted a request to the Ministry of Interior to grant legal status to the minor children of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem whose request for status reinstatement is being examined, so that the children have access to healthcare and education. Residents of East Jerusalem who request to reinstate status that "expired" due to having lived abroad or to gaining residency in another country, are obligated to live in Israel or East Jerusalem for two years before their status is reinstated. During that period, the applicants receive temporary residency (an A/5 visa) which allows them to work and grants them access to healthcare and social rights.


However, many residents return to East Jerusalem with minor children who were born while they were living abroad. These children are not granted, according to regulations, any status while their parents' request is being examined.


On October 4, 2018, the Ministry of Interior announced that, after reviewing HaMoked's request, it found that "during the period of proving center of life and settling down in Israel on the part of the parent who is in a status reinstatement process, these minors have received for some time, a temporary permit of the B/2 type in order to legalize their status".


The Ministry's response officially announces for the first time that these children will no longer spend two years as illegal aliens while their parents' request is being reviewed. However, a B/2 visa is a tourist visa which does not grant the children any residency rights. As such, these children will continue to live in East Jerusalem without the right to healthcare and education, until their parents' request is approved.