IL
Israel · ויזת חדשנות ליזם טכנולוגי זר · Startup · apply embassy, in country · processing up to 14 days
B/2 Innovation stay permit for a foreign technology entrepreneur who develops a research-and-development venture in Israel with a supporting framework. The Israel Innovation Authority only recommends the applicant. The Population and Immigration Authority issues the permit. The stay is up to 24 months in all, in grants of up to one year. Approval of the recommendation is not a cash grant.
The supporting framework must have a signed agreement with the entrepreneur. It can be a venture fund or Israeli investors, an incubator under benefit tracks 3, 4 or 39, long-term R&D under track 8, an innovation lab under track 29, an innovation center or accelerator under track 49, or a private accelerator with at least three years of experience. The file names that framework, includes its support declaration, states the sources that will cover living expenses for the whole stay, and describes the research and development to be done in Israel. There is no set income, savings or investment amount. A professional examiner reports to the chief executive of the Innovation Authority, who decides in writing. Applications are taken in the order received. The permit is a visitor license, not a work permit. The holder may develop the approved project and may not take wages from a person or company in Israel, and may not be anyone's employee there. A spouse and children under 18 may receive a B/2 visit permit for the same period. That permit is not a work permit. A national who needs a visa in advance receives it at an Israeli mission. A visa-exempt national may enter for 30 days and must collect the permit in person at the Population and Immigration Authority office in Bnei Brak. A complete file there is to be decided within 14 days. The passport must be valid for at least 18 months beyond the period requested. A certificate of good conduct and a medical certificate from the three months before the application are required. The certificate must say the applicant does not have tuberculosis, hepatitis, syphilis, gonorrhea or AIDS. Each grant is up to one year. An extension is filed in person in Bnei Brak three months before expiry, with a fresh Innovation Authority confirmation, up to 24 months from the first issue. A multiple-entry visa can cover that period. The same 2016 procedure describes a later switch to a B/1 expert or manager work visa for up to 63 further months. That is a different permit. It is not permanent residence or citizenship. The 2026 fee notice sets a B/2 visa and license at 105 NIS when the passport is not one of the countries in Part B, section 2, of the First Schedule, and an extension of a residence license, other than the B/5 line, at 205 NIS. That country list was not retrieved, so no single dollar fee is stored. At the Bank of Israel representative rate on 9 October 2026, 1 US dollar was 3.055 shekels, so 105 NIS is about $34 and 205 NIS is about $67. Israeli tax residence is the center of life. Spending 183 days in Israel in a tax year, or 30 days in that year when the total with the two preceding years is 425 days, creates a presumption that can be rebutted. A part of a day counts. A resident is taxed on worldwide income. For 2026, earned-income brackets run from 10% to 47%, and a further 3% applies above 721,560 NIS, so the top rate is 50%. The ten-year exemption for new immigrants and veteran returning residents does not come with this visa. The Innovation Authority council approved the recommendation procedure on 6 November 2023. It still defines the visa as the permit issued under the Population and Immigration Authority's experimental procedure, whose published English text is dated 1 August 2016 and says the procedure was to last up to three years. That file is still the text published for the procedure.
Israel also offers a digital nomad visa for remote workers
Last verified Oct 9, 2026 Last changed Oct 10, 2026 Source
changed the endorsement from a committee to the Innovation Authority chief executive (https://innovationisrael.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%94%D7%9C-%D7%95%D7%99%D7%96%D7%AA-%D7%99%D7%96%D7%9D-%D7%96%D7%A8-%D7%98%D7%9B%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%92%D7%99.pdf).
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