A caregiver assigned to the periphery may not move to the center. A guide to the geographic rule, exceptional transfers, the 90-day window and breach risks.
A caregiver (nursing-care worker) invited to Israel to care for a patient in a remote locality often discovers, after just a few months, that the employment has ended — the patient has passed away, the worker has been dismissed, or a relative already working in Tel Aviv promises a better job. At the same time, families in the center of the country who are struggling to find a caregiver discover that the worker they found is not permitted to work for them at all. Both sides run into the same obstacle: the geographic restriction attached to the work licence in the caregiving sector.
This is not a technicality. Moving to an area not permitted under the licence can end in the licence being revoked, a demand to leave Israel within a few days, and exposure to enforcement and detention proceedings — even where the worker has actually worked, and even where the patient is satisfied.
Section 3A(c3) of the Entry into Israel Law, 5712-1952 authorizes the Minister of Interior to designate, by regulation, the geographic areas in which alone a foreign worker may engage in the occupation specified in his or her licence. Under this power, the Entry into Israel Regulations (Designation of Geographic Areas for the Employment of Foreign Workers in the Caregiving Sector), 5774-2014 were enacted, together with the Entry into Israel Regulations (Control Measures on the Transfer of Foreign Workers in the Caregiving Sector), 5774-2014.
The practical handling of these matters is governed by three Procedures of the Population and Immigration Authority: Procedure 9.2.0008 (Procedure for Handling Requests for an Exceptional Transfer of a Foreign Caregiver between Geographic Areas), edition 1 from 2015; Procedure 5.3.0002 (Procedure for Recruiting and Employing a Foreign Worker in the Caregiving Field), as updated in September 2022; and Procedure 5.3.0022 (Procedure for Updating the Workplace of Foreign Workers). Clause ד.23 of Procedure 5.3.0002 adds that a caregiver is also subject to a duty of advance notice before resigning.
The regulations divide the country into three areas — the Tel Aviv area, the Center area and the periphery — and assign every caregiver to an area according to the place of residence of the patient to whom he or she was invited. Clause ב.3 of Procedure 9.2.0008 states the rule simply: a worker who arrived from abroad to care for a patient in the periphery and wishes to change employer may look for alternative work only in the periphery; a worker who arrived for the "Center" area may move to a patient in the same area or in the periphery; and only a worker who arrived for the Tel Aviv area may move to patients anywhere in the country. Movement is thus permitted in one direction only — from Tel Aviv outward.
For someone who was already staying in Israel before the regulations came into force, the assignment is determined by the address of the current or most recent lawful employer (regulation 9(1)). Conversely, a patient who moves to live in a different area after having begun employing the worker may notify the Authority of this, and the worker will continue working for him or her in the new area (regulation 6(a); clause ב.5 of the Procedure). The restriction is given to the worker before entry into Israel and before every licence extension (clause ב.6), and is also recorded on the licence itself.
Regulation 6(b) authorizes the responsible official — the Director-General of the Population and Immigration Authority — to permit an exceptional transfer between areas if satisfied that exceptional circumstances requiring it exist, concerning the welfare of the patient or of the foreign worker. It is important to understand who applies: under clause ד.1 of Procedure 9.2.0008, this is a request by the patient, not by the worker, and it is submitted through a private (recruitment) bureau licensed under section 65 of the Employment Service Law, 5719-1959. The threshold conditions are: the patient holds a valid, active and available employment permit; the worker entered Israel on a B/1 licence for the caregiving sector; and no more than 51 months have passed since the worker's first entry into Israel — the maximum period for starting new employment (clauses ד.2–ד.3, ו.1–ו.3). The request must be accompanied by a form detailing previous placement attempts and the exceptional humanitarian grounds, a social worker's opinion, and a letter from the treating physician; missing documents not completed within 14 days cause the request to be dismissed outright (clause ז.4). The Advisory Committee has been instructed to approve exceptional transfers "sparingly, and only in exceptional cases and for especially special reasons" (clause ג.6).
Here is the rule that defeats most requests: regulation 6(c) provides that the responsible official may not permit an exceptional transfer if he finds that, before the decision, the worker was employed in an area not in accordance with what is stated in his or her visa. The Procedure repeats this in clauses א, ג.2 and ד.4, and stresses that such a request "will be dismissed outright"; even employment that began after the request was filed but before the answer was given defeats it (clause ו.4). Anyone who has already moved and started working has burned the route. The correct order is the reverse of intuition: first check the assignment recorded on the licence, then file the request, and then wait.
A worker who has been dismissed, whose employer has died, or who was forced to leave his or her employer, may arrange employment with another employer within 90 days, during which no enforcement or removal proceedings will be taken against him or her (clause ב.1 of Procedure 5.3.0022). Where possible, the move should be reported even before leaving (clause ב.2), and in the caregiving sector a transfer to a new employer cannot be approved without being registered with a private bureau (clause ב.5).
On the other hand, section 11(a1) of the Entry into Israel Law requires the Minister of Interior to revoke the visa and licence of a foreign worker who has not been employed in the occupation specified in his or her licence for more than 90 days, unless "special reasons" are found that prevented him or her from finding work, and after he or she has been given an opportunity to state his or her case. The 90 days are not a vacation but a period during which the worker is expected to act: to contact the private bureau with which he or she is registered to update details and receive offers, to contact more than one bureau, and to document all of this. And for the purposes of this guide — the search must focus on the permitted area; both restrictions apply at the same time.
The normal procedure is a summons to a hearing (in writing, and sometimes also in person), followed by a reasoned decision. Clause ד.22 of Procedure 5.3.0002 authorizes the Authority, subject to a hearing, to revoke any visa and licence granted under it where non-compliance with the law, the regulations or the procedures has been found. A revocation decision is usually accompanied by a demand to leave Israel within seven to fourteen days, after which the worker becomes exposed to enforcement proceedings, including a detention order. At the same time, the Control Regulations direct the Caregiving Division to examine the case of a worker who has stopped working for at least three patients within two years, on suspicion of misuse of the licence.
Tribunals sometimes set an "organising period" — a period during which no enforcement proceedings will be taken, to allow the worker to find a new patient or plan his or her next steps, and this typically amounts to only a few dozen days. This is a discretionary remedy, not a right: it is granted to someone whose conduct is found to have been essentially proper, and denied to someone found unfit to work in the caregiving sector.
Against a decision of an official of the Authority, an internal appeal may generally be filed in writing, without delay and no later than 21 days, under Procedure 1.6.0001 (Procedure for Receiving Requests and Appeals against Decisions of the Authority's Bureaus and Headquarters) — unless the relevant Procedure directs the matter straight to the Appeals Tribunal for immigration matters. Against the final decision, an appeal is filed with the Appeals Tribunal under section 13כד of the Entry into Israel Law, within the period fixed by law, together with — where there is a risk of enforcement — an application for an interim order. A judgment of the Tribunal may be appealed to the District Court sitting as the Court for Administrative Affairs within 45 days. Note carefully: an appeal filed without a prior formal request under the Procedure may be dismissed outright for failure to exhaust the administrative process.
The law prevails over the Procedure. In Leave to Appeal (Supreme Court) 8668/17 (30 Oct 2019), the Supreme Court held that the geographic regulations do not limit the Minister of Interior's power to extend a caregiver's licence on special humanitarian grounds under section 3A(b1) of the Law, even where the area to which the worker is assigned does not match the patient's place of residence, and struck down the Procedure's provision that dismissed such requests outright. It clarified, however, that "authority is one thing, discretion another": the Advisory Committee may still weigh policy considerations and the circumstances of the transfer, provided it examines the request on its merits (paragraphs 28–33). This ruling concerns only the humanitarian track available after 63 months.
Exhausting the process is not a formality. In Appeal (Jerusalem) 2698-22 (8 Aug 2022), an 84-year-old patient from Netanya sought to employ a worker whose licence was designated for the periphery, but the private bureau made do with an email exchange instead of a request under Procedure 9.2.0008. The Tribunal dismissed the appeal outright: turning to the courts is not a substitute for exhausting the administrative process, and the Tribunal does not substitute its own discretion for that of the Authority.
An actual move to a prohibited area is weighed against the worker. Adm. Appeal (Jerusalem) 48982-02-26 (8 Mar 2026) dealt with a worker who had been employed by three patients for short periods, failed to arrange his employment for 138 days, and moved to live in Tel Aviv even though he was assigned to the periphery. The Authority revoked his licence, and the District Court granted the State's appeal, set aside the Tribunal's judgment — including the direction against taking enforcement measures — and remanded the matter.
What counts as a "special reason," and how much time is granted. In Appeal (Jerusalem) 1621-26 (9 Aug 2026), a worker exceeded the 90-day window by about two weeks after his patient's death, claiming he was waiting for an "agent" who had taken money from him and promised him work. The appeal was dismissed: the worker had not contacted the private bureau with which he was registered to update his details and receive job offers as required by clause ז.5 of Procedure 5.3.0002, nor had he contacted other bureaus operating near his residence — and waiting for someone who is not a licensed intermediary is not a "special reason." As to the organising period: in an appeal in which a patient's request to transfer a worker from the periphery to the Center was denied, an organising period of sixty days was set (Adm. Appeal (Jerusalem) 3350-05-26 (15 Jul 2026)), and in Appeal (Jerusalem) 1240-26 (16 Jun 2026) it was clarified that the 45 days granted in a Supreme Court ruling in a different case is not a blanket rule.
We guide caregivers and employing families through every stage of this issue: checking the geographic assignment recorded on the licence before any step is taken, building an exceptional-transfer request under Procedure 9.2.0008 together with the private bureau and the treating physician, accompanying clients through a hearing before licence revocation, and filing an internal appeal, an appeal to the Appeals Tribunal, and an application for an interim order where immediate enforcement is threatened. Where the process has reached a late stage, we also examine alternative routes and the possibility of requesting an organising period. An early inquiry — before the move — is worth far more than any argument raised afterward.
The assignment is determined by the place of residence of the patient to whom you were invited to Israel, and for someone who was already in Israel before the regulations came into force — by the address of the current or most recent lawful employer. Under clause ב.6 of Procedure 9.2.0008, every worker receives information about the restrictions before entering Israel and before every licence extension, and the restriction is also recorded on the licence itself. If you are not sure, check with the private bureau to which you are assigned before making any move.
Do not start working. The exceptional-transfer request is filed by the patient, through a licensed private bureau, under Procedure 9.2.0008, together with a social worker's opinion and a letter from the treating physician. Regulation 6(c) provides that a request will be dismissed outright if the worker was employed in the prohibited area before the request was filed or before a decision on it was made. The correct order is: request first, work only after approval.
As a rule, 90 days. Clause ב.1 of Procedure 5.3.0022 provides that a worker who has been dismissed, whose employer has died, or who was forced to leave, may arrange employment with another employer within 90 days, during which no enforcement proceedings will be taken against him or her. Section 11(a1) of the Entry into Israel Law requires revocation of the licence of someone not employed in the occupation for more than 90 days, absent special reasons. In practice, what you did during this period will be examined, so it is important to register with a private bureau, update your details, and document your inquiries.
The exceptional-transfer route under Procedure 9.2.0008 is indeed blocked in such a situation, under regulation 6(c). Nevertheless, at a hearing or on appeal you can argue special reasons, circumstances beyond the worker's control, and the welfare of the current patient, and request an organising period to find a patient in the permitted area. In appropriate cases, and especially after 63 months, the humanitarian track under section 3A(b1) of the Law may also be examined, which, under Leave to Appeal (Supreme Court) 8668/17, is not blocked outright due to a geographic mismatch. This is no guarantee of an outcome.
No. Under regulation 6(a) of the regulations, and in accordance with clause ב.5 of Procedure 9.2.0008, a patient who moves to live in a different geographic area after having begun employing a foreign worker may notify the Population and Immigration Authority of the move, and the worker will be able to continue working for him or her in the new area. It is important to make sure the report is timely, since a gap between the registered address and the actual address is a common source of problems later on.