Center for the Defence of the Individual - Following appeals to the Ministry of Interior to reconsider child registration applications under the amended procedure: Five children from East Jerusalem recently received status in Israel
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חזרה לעמוד הקודם
31.01.2016

Following appeals to the Ministry of Interior to reconsider child registration applications under the amended procedure: Five children from East Jerusalem recently received status in Israel

Between May and July 2015, HaMoked contacted the Ministry of Interior with requests to reconsider eleven applications according to the Amended Procedure for Processing Applications for Israeli Residency Visas for Minors Born Outside Israel with Only One Parent Registered as a Permanent Resident of Israel, published on April 19, 2015. The amendment was meant to enable reconsideration of child registration applications that were previously rejected due to absence of consistent residency, or center-of-life, in Israel for at least two years prior to application submission. According to the procedure, applications are reconsidered according to the child’s age at the time the application that was automatically rejected was submitted.

On July 9, 2015, HaMoked contacted the Ministry of Interior with a request to reconsider such an application, made in 2006 by an Israeli resident for her son who was born in the West Bank. The application was rejected for lack of center-of-life. Another application filed by the mother in 2008 was approved, but since the boy was older than 14 at the time, all he was eligible to receive were Israeli stay permits issued by the military. These permits provide no social rights or health insurance, and extending them requires stringent security checks.

Despite repeated communications to the Ministry of Interior on this matter, no response was received for two months. HaMoked then filed an appeal to the Appeals Tribunal in Jerusalem, asking the Population and Immigration Authority be instructed to respond to the request and formalize the youth’s status in Israel.

On January 11, 2016, HaMoked received the state’s notification that it had rejected the child registration application because the original application from 2006 contained a false affidavit from the mother with respect to the family’s place of residence prior to submission of the application. Following a communication from HaMoked, the Ministry of Interior retracted this claim and on January 13, 2016, the state provided an updating notice stating the application was approved and the youth would receive a temporary residency visa (A/5 visa) for two years.

So far, five of the eleven applications submitted by HaMoked under the amended procedure have been approved. Three have been denied (an appeal was filed in one) and the remaining applications are still pending. The five youths whose applications were approved were given temporary residency status (A/5 visa) for two years, which entitles them to social rights and health insurance. After the two-year period, the ministry will consider upgrading their status to permanent residency, subject to protocol.