First 30 Days in Israel: A Practical To-Do List for New Olim

You’ve landed. The plane touched down, someone started clapping (there’s always someone clapping), and you’ve just walked through Ben Gurion Airport with the slowly dawning realization that you actually did this.

Here’s the first thing you should know: Israel actually takes pretty good care of you from the moment you step off the plane. Not perfectly, not without paperwork, not without the occasional bureaucratic curveball but better than most new immigrants expect. The airport experience for a standard Oleh Chadash is surprisingly efficient. What comes after it requires more active effort on your part.

Let’s walk through what actually happens, in the order it actually happens.

Step Zero: What You Get at the Airport

Before we even talk about your to-do list, it’s worth understanding how much is handled for you before you leave Ben Gurion.

For the vast majority of new olim arriving on a standard aliyah flight, the airport itself is where the process begins and several items get checked off simultaneously. You’ll receive your Teudat Oleh, the official immigrant booklet from Misrad HaAliyah V’HaKlita. You’ll receive a temporary Teudat Zehut, your Israeli identity card, which is valid for three months. You’ll receive a Kupat Holim registration form, meaning your health fund enrollment starts at the airport, not after you’ve figured out the transit system. You’ll receive your first Sal Klita payment as a credit card that can be used in many places, so you have real money to cover your first immediate expenses.

Not bad for a country whose bureaucracy has a complicated reputation.

A few important caveats: if you’re a previous A-1 temporary resident, an Oleh B’Sheinit, or arriving after your spouse, your experience at the airport will differ. Some of these items won’t be issued to you there, and you’ll need to set up an appointment with your local Misrad HaKlita to receive your Teudat Oleh and healthcare registration. If your situation is non-standard in any way, know this in advance and plan accordingly.

The Six Steps That Matter in Your First Weeks

Step 1: Open a Bank Account

Nearly everything in Israeli financial life runs on bank transfers. Your Sal Klita monthly installments, your salary, your rent payments, your utilities and all of it flows through a bank account. Without one, you are effectively standing outside the economy looking in.

When you arrive at the bank, bring your temporary Teudat Zehut, your Teudat Oleh, and the “Note of Future Bank Account” form you received at the airport. That form gets stamped by the bank and then shown to your local Misrad HaKlita to set up your ongoing Sal Klita deposits. Married olim need both spouses present to open a joint account for the family Sal Klita payments.

Israeli banks include Hapoalim, Leumi, Mizrahi Tefahot, and Discount Bank. Ask other olim in your area which they use and whether they’d choose the same again. The answers are informative. Look into whether the branch has English-speaking staff before you show up.

Step 2: Get Your Biometric Teudat Zehut

The temporary ID you received at the airport is valid for three months and needs to be replaced with a permanent biometric one. This involves making an appointment at any Misrad HaPnim branch. Don’t leave this until week eleven. The appointment system can have wait times, and having a functioning permanent ID makes every other step on this list easier. Book the appointment for the 3 month mark so you can get processed for a biometric Teudat Zehut as well as a Teudat Maavar (equivalent to an Israeli passport and issued for the first year after Aliyah 

Step 3: Visit Misrad HaAliyah V’HaKlita

Schedule an appointment at your local Ministry of Aliyah and Integration branch to register your bank account details for ongoing Sal Klita payments, register for ulpan, and get guidance on your specific rights and benefits. This is also where you’ll learn about rental assistance, which begins from the seventh or eighth month after aliyah depending on when you arrived, and continues for a defined period through the Ministry of Housing.

This meeting is important not because it’s complicated but because it’s where you find out what you’re entitled to. Israel has a reasonably generous absorption system, and the benefits available to you include rent subsidies, ulpan vouchers, tuition assistance, arnona reductions, tax credit points, and more. None of these activate automatically. You need to know they exist, ask about them, and follow up. Go to this appointment with a list of questions.

Step 4: Finalize Your Kupat Holim Registration

Your healthcare registration form from the airport starts the process but doesn’t complete it. You still need to go to your chosen Kupat Holim with the registration form to receive your membership card and discuss supplemental insurance options. This should happen promptly.

New olim receive free basic Kupat Holim coverage for the first six months of aliyah, with a possible additional six-month exemption if you’re unemployed or working limited hours during that time. If you haven’t registered within 90 days of your aliyah date, you can only register directly at a local Kupat Holim branch rather than via the easier email process, so don’t delay unnecessarily.

Critically: register for supplemental health insurance through your Kupat Holim during the first 90 days. Doing so within this window exempts you from waiting periods for supplemental plan services. Miss this window and waiting periods apply, which is a meaningful difference if you actually need the coverage.

The four options are Clalit, Maccabi, Meuhedet, and Leumit. You had the chance to choose at the airport. If you didn’t decide there, decide now based on where you live, your health needs, and what people you trust have recommended.

Step 5: Register for Child Benefits

If you have children, monthly child allowances from Bituach Leumi don’t just appear. They require active registration. This should happen early because the allowances are paid retroactively from registration, not from birth or aliyah, and you don’t want to leave money sitting unclaimed for two months while you got around to it.

Note on Bituach Leumi more broadly: for most standard olim, there is no need to physically visit a Bituach Leumi office as part of your initial absorption. Your Kupat Holim healthcare registration is handled separately, as described above. Bituach Leumi visits are necessary for specific situations including registering for child allowances, certain benefit applications, and cases involving non-standard immigration status. Don’t add this to your week-one panic list unless it applies to your specific situation.

Step 6: Register Children for School or Gan

If you have school-age children, registration goes through your local municipality’s education office. Bring your Teudat Oleh, the children’s birth certificates, vaccination records, and any school records from their previous country. Children between first and twelfth grade are entitled to individual and group Hebrew language instruction during school hours as part of their absorption rights, so ask specifically about this.

Don’t leave this until the last minute, especially if you’re arriving near the start of an academic year.

The Three Time-Sensitive Steps That People Miss

Arnona Reduction

New olim are entitled to an arnona reduction of up to 90% on the first 100 square meters of living space, applicable during the first two years from the date of aliyah. This benefit is issued through your city municipality, not through any of the offices above. It does not come to you automatically. You have to go to the municipality and ask for it, with your Teudat Oleh as documentation. Given that arnona in most Israeli cities is not trivial, this is worth doing promptly.

Driver’s License Conversion

If you hold a valid license from certain countries including the United States, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, and Australia among others, you can convert it to an Israeli license without a full driving test. The process involves a vision test and a theory test, but it’s significantly simpler than starting from scratch. The window for this easier conversion process is within your first year of aliyah. Book it early rather than discovering in month eleven that your window is closing.

Israeli Passport

You’re now an Israeli citizen, which means you’re entitled to an Israeli passport. This is done through Misrad HaPnim and can happen relatively early in the process. Having an Israeli passport matters for travel, for various administrative purposes, and frankly for the emotional significance of holding a document that says exactly where you belong. An oleh can apply for an Israei passport after living in the country for a full year.  Misrad Hapnim does look at the amount of time spent in Israel  in order to approve a passport for the applicant. 

The Practical Things Nobody Puts on Official Lists

Get your ulpan registration done at your Misrad HaKlita visit. Ulpan is subsidized Hebrew instruction and it’s part of your absorption package. Register early because spots fill up. The sooner you start, the sooner you stop pointing at things in supermarkets.

Find your WhatsApp groups. Every Israeli city and neighborhood with a significant Anglo population has WhatsApp groups full of people who have been through exactly what you’re going through. They know which bank branch has English speakers, which plumber actually shows up, and where to buy familiar food items. These groups are worth more per hour than most official resources.

Explore your municipal coordinator. Most municipalities with immigrant populations have municipal coordinators specifically assigned to help new olim navigate local resources, registration, schools, and services. Ask Misrad HaKlita about the coordinator in your city. This is a free resource that many people discover too late.

Keep your documents organized and accessible. You will be asked for your Teudat Oleh, your Teudat Zehut number, and various other documents repeatedly in your first months. Keep physical copies accessible and photograph everything. Your Teudat Zehut number in particular gets used for almost everything in Israel including memberships, applications, appointments and bank transactions, so memorize it or keep it somewhere easily reachable.

The Part Worth Saying Out Loud

Israel’s absorption system is more organized than its reputation suggests. You’re not arriving to chaos with a suitcase and a prayer. A significant amount of what you need for your first days is handed to you before you leave the airport. What comes next is a series of steps, each manageable on its own, all of which can be navigated with some preparation and the right guidance.

The hardest part isn’t the paperwork. The hardest part is doing all the paperwork while also processing the emotional reality of having started your life over in a new country. Give yourself permission for both to be true simultaneously.

You made it here. The list is long but it has an end. And once it’s done, you get to just live here, which is the whole point.

Olim Advisors guides new immigrants through every step of the absorption process, from airport arrival through the end of the first year and beyond. Olim Advisors guides new immigrants through every step of the absorption process, from airport arrival through the end of the first year and beyond. Since October 7th, our real estate guidance package is provided to clients at no charge. Reach out. You don’t have to work through this alone.