Israel is closer to the implementation of a law that would setup a national center for the collection and analysis of data on flights and passengers entering and exiting Israel – allowing the U.S. to take a major step towards allowing Israeli nationals to travel the U.S. without a visa.

Additionally, the U.S. Embassy in Israel announced in January that Israel had met the Nonimmigrant Visa Refusal Rate requirement for the 2022 fiscal year, a prerequisite for joining the Visa Waiver Program. The percentage of visa refusals for Israelis was less than 3%, a requirement to join the program.

If the remaining pieces of legislation can be completed this summer – provisions that include the development, implementation, and testing of data sharing systems across government agencies, as well as reciprocity concerns (particularly for Arab and Palestinian Americans) – Israelis will be able to begin traveling to the United States without a visa for tourism or business trips shorter than 90 days beginning on October 1, 2023. We expect additional information to be forthcoming this summer.

For specific questions, please reach out to the T&S (Tafapolsky & Smith) U.S. team for a consultation.