VisaIsrael lets citizens use valid foreign passports until 31 December 2026
A current-rule guide explains the temporary exception, the requirement to carry an Israeli passport and the separate renewal options.
Official announcement date: not established (undated guidance) · Change takes effect: 2026-12-31
Last verified against linked sources:
Edited and checked by the VisaWand editorial team
Carry both documents during the temporary exception
Israeli citizens with a valid foreign passport can currently use it to enter and leave Israel under a temporary exception ending on 31 December 2026. The Israeli consulate in Chicago publishes that endpoint and expressly instructs travellers to carry their Israeli passport too, even if it has expired. This is a current-rule guide for Israeli citizens with another passport, rather than a visitor-visa concession for foreign nationals.
For an illustrative trip leaving before the endpoint but returning afterwards, the public notice does not cover the later crossing. Arrange appropriate Israeli documents for that part of the itinerary or establish a subsequently published extension before relying on the exception.
Choose replacement or extension according to the existing document
The national overseas travel-document service distinguishes replacing an expired or full document from extending an eligible non-biometric passport. For replacement, it lists two current identical colour photographs, 5 by 5 centimetres with a white background, photographic identification and the completed signed passport or travel-document application. Fees are taken from the consular schedule, with local-currency amounts available from the relevant mission.
An extension can take a non-biometric passport only up to five years from its original issue date; a biometric passport cannot be extended. The extension service itself is described as free. A lost, stolen or damaged document follows a separate declaration and replacement procedure, with an additional fine. These distinctions matter when planning around the December exception: free extension is not a general free replacement, and an old biometric passport cannot simply be lengthened by a consulate. The national page also says Israeli biometric documents cannot be issued abroad.
Check whether the local consulate accepts a postal renewal
Chicago’s local passport page permits certain adult renewals by registered mail. Its conditions include being over 18, not applying for the first adult passport, having visited Israel within ten years, holding a document that was not lost, damaged or stolen, and having no outstanding debts in Israel. Its postal package includes the old passport, application form, photographs, credit-card authorisation and return-shipping form. The published return-shipping charge is US$13, separate from the consular service fee.
The local page requires personal attendance for a first travel document, a first adult passport and minors accompanied by their parents. This differs in presentation from the national service page’s blanket instruction that applications be made personally. Chicago’s specific postal instructions should therefore be used only by applicants within that mission’s service arrangements who meet its conditions. Someone using another post should establish its own intake method rather than post original documents to Chicago because the national exception permits travel.
Do not buy a visitor authorisation for an Israeli citizen
The Population and Immigration Authority’s official entry portal says Israeli citizens and holders of an Israeli identity number do not need an ETA-IL. The Israeli embassy in Wellington repeats that exemption in its visitor-authorisation announcement. Consequently, the foreign passport used under the temporary citizen arrangement does not, by itself, turn that citizen into an ordinary visa-exempt tourist who must purchase an ETA.
Use the official entry portal or the responsible Israeli mission to resolve a citizenship-record or document question. A visitor authorisation is not a substitute for establishing the person’s Israeli status or carrying the expired Israeli passport required by the exception notice.
Read general foreign travel advice alongside the specific Israeli notice
The United States travel advisory states the ordinary rule that dual US-Israeli citizens must enter and leave using an Israeli passport, and separately confirms that they need no ETA-IL. Its general passport wording does not describe the December 2026 exception published by Israel’s own consulate.
The sources therefore need to be read at different levels: the US advisory states the normal legal position, while the Israeli notice identifies a temporary administrative exception and its document requirement. This comparison does not establish how an airline will handle an individual itinerary. Before departure, present the current Israeli notice and both passports when resolving a document-check question, and confirm any new rules for crossings after December.
