Sponsorship

Israeli law generally provides for only one type of work status relating to the employment of foreign professionals and non-professionals alike: the B-1 visa category. A foreign national who has been assigned to work in Israel must obtain a work permit and an appropriate entry visa prior to entering Israel. This is regardless the place of paying the salary and payroll. 

Sponsoring company in the work permit context, means the company which will be legally and officially responsible for the foreign experts while working in Israel, including undertaking and execution of the obligations under Israeli labor law in general, in particular for paying them the required salary (which is as twice as the average salary in Israel), arranging for them the medical insurance, providing them with adequate housing, undertake that they will leave Israel once completing their work and other obligations.

A human resources company (“HR” Companies), either based in Israel or abroad, employing staffed workers cannot sponsor work authorization applications to work at client sites.

An Israeli employer (or a well-known global foreign company) must be the official sponsor of a work permit application. There is no separate category or provision for a self-employment working permit.

Employers and managers convicted of employing illegal migrant workers or for repeated offences may be found guilty of a severe criminal offence. In recent years, illegal employers of migrant workers have been punished with increasing severity, and indicted more often, rather than being administratively fined. The company itself may be blacklisted, with the effect sponsorship.