Guide for inviting organisations and foreign volunteers: who may invite on a B/4 visa, what volunteering allows, and what happens if the licence is cancelled.
A non-profit association, kibbutz, moshav, nursing home, or religious institution wishing to host a volunteer from abroad — and the volunteers themselves, usually young people from developed countries — are subject to the same set of rules. A B/4 visa and residence licence (volunteer) is the only route that allows a foreign national to volunteer in Israel in exchange for a subsistence allowance, room and board, without wages. It is neither a work visa nor a tourist visa.
Recurring difficulties cluster around two points: entry into Israel, when a volunteer arrives on a tourist licence and it emerges at border control that the purpose of the visit is volunteering; and the end of the volunteering, when the inviting organisation asks the Population and Immigration Authority to cancel the volunteer's licence. In both cases the consequences are immediate — refusal of entry, cancellation of the licence, and at times detention and removal as well.
The authority to grant visas and residence licences rests with the Minister of the Interior under section 2 of the Entry into Israel Law, 5712-1952, and the Minister's discretion is broad. The starting point, repeatedly affirmed in case law, is that a person who is not an Israeli citizen and not an oleh under the Law of Return, 5710-1950, has no vested right to enter or reside in Israel — as section 1(b) of the Law states, and as the Appeals Tribunal for immigration matters reiterated in Appeal (Beer Sheva) 2044-25 (27 Aug 2025).
The Population and Immigration Authority applies this discretion through Procedure 5.6.0001 (the Procedure for Handling Volunteers), whose seventh edition was published on 14 November 2022. Clause א.1 sets out its purpose: to allow welfare and health organisations, religious institutions, kibbutzim, moshavim and philanthropic institutions to draw on foreign manpower willing to volunteer for ideological or humanitarian reasons, without pay or wages, but in exchange for a subsistence allowance, accommodation, enrichment studies and board. The Procedure also rests on regulation 5(d) of the Entry into Israel Regulations, 5734-1974. A Procedure is an administrative directive, not a statute, and is itself subject to judicial review — a point given practical effect in the case law reviewed below.
As a rule, the application is filed on behalf of the inviting organisation while the volunteer is still abroad, and if approved, the visa is issued at an Israeli mission there (clause א.2). Only organisations the Authority has recognised as authorised to invite volunteers may file such an application (clause א.4) — including the Kibbutz Movement, the Moshav Movement, the Jewish Agency, Yad Vashem, the Religious Affairs Division and the Volunteering Association; volunteers at Ministry of Welfare institutions are handled with the host institution, subject to the Ministry of Welfare's recommendation (clause א.4.י). An organisation not on the list cannot invite a volunteer, however worthy its activity.
The volunteer, too, must meet threshold conditions. Clause א.3 limits the track to citizens of countries whose per-capita GDP is at least 50% of Israel's. Clause א.8 adds further bars: a person previously removed from Israel, a person previously refused entry at a border crossing, a person who stayed and worked in Israel on a B/1 licence, and a person who stayed in Israel unlawfully — for some of these, the Authority has discretion to approve an exception. Also required are a translated and certified certificate of good conduct from the country of origin, confirmation of good health, and a declaration by the inviting organisation that it has verified the volunteer has the means to support themselves and a return flight ticket, without taking out loans (clauses א.9 and ג.2–ג.5).
Clause ג.5 places substantial undertakings on the inviting organisation: medical insurance for the entire stay; providing the volunteer with detailed information, in writing and orally and in a language they understand, about the nature of the volunteering, its hours, living conditions and the subsistence allowance, and that no wages will be paid; volunteering hours not exceeding 35 hours a week and up to 7 hours a day; rest days, leave and reasonable breaks; and suitable housing at the organisation's expense. A letter from the host organisation must be attached to the application (clause ג.6). Paid work is not permitted under this visa.
The volunteer's licence is granted for up to a year at a time, and as a rule is not extended beyond 24 months in total (clauses א.5, ד.14). A major exception concerns volunteers at geriatric institutions and sheltered housing for Holocaust survivors, where the licence can be extended a year at a time for up to five years from the date of first entry into Israel, subject to the Ministry of Welfare's recommendation and to leaving Israel for at least a month once every two years. In an extension application the volunteer completes form Ash/3, with an explanatory letter and the inviting organisation's recommendation attached (clause ג.7), and may file it in person at the branch office (clause ד.1). Moving from one inviting organisation to another requires a waiver letter from the previous organisation (clause ד.18); leaving Israel without a re-entry visa voids the licence (clause א.12); and the Procedure does not allow a volunteer to bring first-degree family members along (clause א.11).
Clause ד.8 provides that a change of licence type will not be approved where a tourist enters the country on a B/2 licence and an inviting organisation then asks to have them recognised as a volunteer. Only in exceptional cases, at the district's discretion and after consulting the Population Authority headquarters, may such a change be approved, and in any event the combined period of tourism and volunteering may not exceed 12 months. The practical conclusion: a B/4 visa must be arranged in advance, from abroad.
At the same time, clause א.7 provides that a volunteer may not change the type of residence licence they hold while in Israel, and must leave when the licence expires. In Appeal (Tel Aviv) 3446-23 (28 Nov 2023), which concerned an application for status based on a relationship with an Israeli citizen, the Tribunal noted that the argument that clause א.7 was not intended for a case where a couple relationship formed during the volunteering is not without merit, and that there may be cases where a volunteer's status application would be examined while they are still in Israel — though in that case the appeal was dismissed on other grounds, relating to threshold documents that had not been submitted as required. This is a specific observation, not binding precedent.
This is the most sensitive point. The inviting organisation is responsible for ensuring the volunteer's departure when the volunteering ends (clause א.6). The Authority may cancel a volunteer's licence with immediate effect — subject to a hearing — among other things following a reasoned recommendation from a public authority, non-compliance with the Procedure, or failure to disclose full information (clause א.14). At the same time, the Authority may revoke the authorisation given to an inviting organisation, likewise after a hearing, if it breached the Procedure, abused it, or seriously harmed volunteers (clause א.13).
From the volunteer's perspective, cancellation of the licence turns them into an unlawful resident. As a result, a removal order and a detention order may be issued against them, and they are brought before the Detention Review Tribunal under section 13(יד)(a) of the Entry into Israel Law. The Tribunal examines whether grounds for release exist under section 13(ו)(a) of the Law — including whether it can be shown that the detainee will leave Israel voluntarily against a guarantee, that there will be no difficulty locating them for removal, or that special humanitarian grounds exist in their case. Asylum or humanitarian claims are best raised as early as possible and through the appropriate channel.
A refusal or cancellation decision by an Authority branch office may be challenged by filing an internal appeal. Under Procedure 1.6.0001 (the Procedure for Handling Applications and Appeals against Decisions of Authority Branches and Headquarters, 8th edition, 24 Feb 2022), it must be filed without delay; in practice, refusal decisions state a 21-day deadline at the foot of the decision. The Volunteers Procedure adds that a refusal letter will be sent to the inviting party within 30 days, stating the reasons for refusal and the possibility of filing an internal appeal (clause ד.10).
After the internal appeal has been exhausted, an appeal may be filed with the Appeals Tribunal under the Entry into Israel Law, within the statutory deadline. A judgment of the Appeals Tribunal, and likewise a decision of the Detention Review Tribunal, may be appealed to the District Court sitting as the Court for Administrative Affairs within 45 days. In urgent cases, an interim order may be sought to stay removal, but such relief is not granted as a matter of course: in Appeal (Tel Aviv) 3559-23, such a request was denied and the appellant returned to their country before the appeal was decided on the merits. An inviting organisation seeking to challenge a general policy, rather than an individual decision, may need to proceed by way of an administrative petition.
A Detention Review Tribunal decision of 11 Mar 2025 concerned a volunteer who had entered Israel in 2023 on a B/4 visa to volunteer at a rehabilitation village supervised by the Ministry of Welfare. As the volunteering neared its end she refused to leave, and the Ministry of Welfare asked to cancel her visa and enforce her departure. She was given a hearing, her licence was cancelled, and on the same day a detention order and a removal order were issued against her. The Tribunal found no grounds for release under section 13(ו)(a) of the Law and approved her continued detention. The lesson: a request from the inviting organisation or the authority supervising it can lead, within weeks, from orderly volunteering to detention.
On the other hand, the Authority's decisions are not immune from review. In Appeal (Jerusalem) 1629-23 (22 May 2023), the case concerned an organisation running a nursing home for Holocaust survivors that relies on long-term volunteers. The Authority approved a volunteer licence for a married couple but refused to allow their infant daughter to enter under clause א.11. The Tribunal allowed the appeal, held that not all the relevant considerations had been weighed, and ordered that a B/2 licence be issued to the daughter for a year — while stressing that the ruling was confined to that organisation's unique circumstances.
In the same context, in Adm. Petition (Jerusalem) 61159-02-23, the District Court sitting as the Court for Administrative Affairs held on 4 Jul 2023 that the Procedure exceeded the bounds of reasonableness, and directed the Minister of the Interior to reconsider it — whether by amending the Procedure or through some other complementary step — and to stay removal proceedings in the meantime. The Authority subsequently announced that the stay permits of that organisation's volunteers would be extended without time limit, and in Leave to Appeal (Supreme Court) 4089/24 (6 Jun 2024), an application for leave to appeal a later decision in the same proceeding was denied, partly in light of the concrete solution given to the volunteers in practice.
Two further judgments illustrate the risk of arriving on the wrong visa. In Appeal (Tel Aviv) 3559-23 (11 Feb 2024), entry was refused to a foreign national who had arrived on a tourist licence; among the border officer's reasons was that, having come to volunteer, he should have arranged a B/4 visa in advance. The Tribunal declined to rule on the question of visa type, but found the decision within the bounds of reasonableness given his frequent entries, his cumulative stay, and the absence of an orderly plan. In Appeal (Beer Sheva) 2044-25 (27 Aug 2025), the appeal was dismissed for a person who had volunteered on a B/4 visa and later had a request to invite him on an A/2 student visa refused; following the refusal he was flagged as barred from entry, and when he arrived at the border crossing without a prior invitation, entry was refused. The Tribunal added that ETA approval is only a preliminary screening and is no substitute for a visa or a prior invitation.
Our office assists inviting organisations — non-profit associations, kibbutzim, moshavim, nursing homes, and welfare and religious institutions — as well as volunteers and their families, at every stage of the process: preparing a volunteer-invitation application and checking that it meets the Procedure's conditions, extension applications and transfers between inviting organisations, representation at a hearing before a licence or authorisation is cancelled, and filing an internal appeal, an appeal to the Appeals Tribunal, and an administrative appeal. We also handle urgent detention and removal cases. If you have received a decision refusing, cancelling, or ordering removal, we recommend contacting us as early as possible — the timeframes here are short.
As a rule, no. Clause ד.8 of Procedure 5.6.0001 provides that a change of licence type will not be approved where a tourist enters the country on a B/2 licence and an inviting organisation then asks to have them recognised as a volunteer, and only in exceptional cases — at the district's discretion and after consulting Population Authority headquarters — may such a change be approved, with the combined period of tourism and volunteering not exceeding 12 months. In Appeal (Tel Aviv) 3559-23, a foreign national whose entry was refused was told, among the border officer's reasons, that having come to volunteer he should have arranged a B/4 visa in advance; the Tribunal itself did not rule on the question of visa type. The safe route is for the inviting organisation to file the application while you are still abroad.
The licence is granted for up to a year at a time, and as a rule is not extended beyond 24 months in total. At geriatric institutions and sheltered housing for Holocaust survivors it can be extended a year at a time for up to five years from the date of first entry into Israel, subject to the Ministry of Welfare's recommendation and to leaving Israel for at least a month once every two years. An extension application requires form Ash/3, with an explanatory letter and the inviting organisation's recommendation attached, and at this stage the volunteer may file the application in person at the branch office.
The inviting organisation is responsible for the volunteer's departure when the volunteering ends, and the Authority may cancel the licence with immediate effect, subject to a hearing, among other things following a reasoned recommendation from a public authority. From the moment of cancellation the volunteer becomes an unlawful resident, and a removal order and a detention order may be issued against them. In a Detention Review Tribunal decision of 11 Mar 2025, continued detention was approved for a volunteer whose licence had been cancelled following a request from the Ministry of Welfare, after no grounds for release were found under section 13(ו)(a) of the Law.
Clause א.7 of the Procedure provides that a volunteer may not change the type of residence licence they hold while in Israel. That said, in Appeal (Tel Aviv) 3446-23 the Tribunal noted that the argument that the clause was not intended for a case where a couple relationship formed during the volunteering is not without merit, and that there may be cases where such an application would be examined while the person is still in Israel. In any event an orderly application and an individual assessment are required, and a prior refusal of a visa application may affect future entries, as arose in Appeal (Beer Sheva) 2044-25.
An internal appeal against a branch office decision must be filed without delay, under Procedure 1.6.0001; in practice, refusal decisions state a 21-day deadline at the foot of the decision. After that, an appeal may be filed with the Appeals Tribunal under the Entry into Israel Law, within the statutory deadline. A judgment of the Appeals Tribunal, and likewise a decision of the Detention Review Tribunal, may be appealed to the District Court sitting as the Court for Administrative Affairs within 45 days. Failing to file an internal appeal on time may result in your arguments being treated as raised with undue delay and referred first for the Authority's own review.