Obtaining citizenship, residency and visas in Israel can be a complicated matter. Different populations are subject to different laws and policies established by the Ministry of Interior. Obtaining legal status for family members of a citizen or resident (family unification) demands overcoming many bureaucratic hurdles and often requires legal intervention. Our firm works with clients in the following areas:

• Family unification applications submitted by citizens or residents on behalf of their foreign spouses
• Family unification applications submitted by citizens or residents on behalf of spouses and children from the occupied Palestinian territories
• Applications for various types of visas, including work visas for refugees and migrant workers and volunteer visas
• Assistance to asylum seekers residing in Israel on the basis of temporary visas
• Humanitarian applications
• Applications for legal status for foreigners who ceased to be eligible for family unification (for example, where the Israeli spouse passed away or in cases of divorce or domestic violence)
• Representing persons in detention and deportation proceedings

Our office also handles cases in which the Ministry of Interior revokes citizenship or residency.  In such matters, the individuals affected are stripped of all their legal rights and face deportation. Many of these individuals are left status-less, without any legal status in the world.

Many of us are not aware of the legal protections guaranteed us by law as employees in the workplace.  The inherent inequality between employer and employee finds the worker in a constant position of unequal bargaining power.  This reality affects each one of us – Israelis and refugees and migrant workers , direct employees and contract workers.  Our firm specializes in protecting the rights of the most disadvantaged workers in Israel, including migrant workers, asylum seekers, hourly workers, Palestinian workers and others. We assist workers in obtaining their labor rights from present and former employers, including assistance in the event of resignation and termination.

Thousands of asylum seekers reside in Israel today, many of whom are from Africa and the majority of whom are from Eritrea and Sudan.  Our firm assists asylum seekers in the following areas:

• Filing applications for refugee status and representation throughout the Refugee Status Determination (RSD) process in the Ministry of Interior
• Appealing Ministry of Interior decisions to deny refugee status
• Representing asylum seekers who received summonses for detention in the Holot detention facility in the Negev

Having worked extensively at the policy level, our firm also has a deep understanding of Israel’s policies and reforms regarding labor migration.  Our firm is committed to protecting the rights of refugees and migrant workers in Israel as well as the rights of foreigners seeking employment in Israel.

Our concentration includes the following:

• Securing work visas for migrants working in the caregiving, agricultural and construction sectors
• Representing caregivers seeking special humanitarian visas
• Representing foreigners working in the fields of journalism, academia and other experts in their field seeking to obtain work visas
• Representing victims of labor trafficking and slavery
• Representing persons in detention and deportation proceedings
• Appealing entry bars where foreign nationals have been denied entry into Israel

In 1967, after the war, Israel declared that the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be closed military zones, making all entries and exits from the regions subject to prior military approval.  As a result, entries of foreigners to the occupied Palestinian territories (the oPt) via Israeli ports of entry require a permit.  This requirement also applies to foreign nationals of Palestinian origin, as well as to Palestinians previously registered with the Palestinian Population Registry but whose status had been revoked by Israel.

Our firm assists foreigners wishing to enter the West Bank and Gaza Strip for various purposes.  Our firm has assisted doctors seeking to enter the Gaza Strip to provide humanitarian aid and to train local doctors.  Applications for entry are submitted to the Office of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), and when necessary, our firm petitions the High Court of Justice on behalf of applicants.

Our firm also represents Palestinians wishing to exit the oPt to enter Israel or travel abroad.

Our team has rich experience conducting research and providing legal opinions in our areas of practice and in other areas. We have drafted numerous reports, issued legal opinions and published shadow reports on behalf of NGOs submitted to U.N. treaty committee bodies.  We have written extensively about the legal status of children born to East Jerusalemite parents and their registration in Israel’s Population Registry, as well as the legal status of East Jerusalem and property rights within it.  We have also examined various legal issues affecting Palestinians residing in Area C of the West Bank.

Our opinions  and research deal heavily with Israeli law and military law in the oPt and address the interface between the two and between international humanitarian law and international human rights law.