Israel's Most Recent Travel Alert - Red Countries: Entry/Exit Roundup

By Staff Reporter
Posted on 12/20/21 | News Source: Chaim V'Chessed

By December 22, many countries in the world will be classified by Israel as Red countries. This includes the US and Canada, and most of Europe and Africa. For the full list of classifications, see here.

If a country is classified as a Red country, it means the following: 

Leaving Israel

• Israeli citizens and permanent residents (toshavei keva) need to obtain permission to leave Israel and travel to a country that is classified as Red, by applying to the Exceptions Committee (Vaadat Charigim). Learn more about the Exceptions Committee here.

Visa holders do not need permission to fly to a country that is classified as Red.

Entering Israel

• Israeli citizens and permanent residents will need to quarantine for fourteen days upon return from Red countries. This can be shortened to seven days with a negative PCR test on the first and seventh days when returning from a red country, as follows:
  • Vaccinated/ Recovered will sign a consent form at the airport, and quarantine at home
  • Non-vaccinated/ Recovered will be sent to a corona hotel until receipt of their first PCR test results. If negative, they will sign a form and go home to finish quarantine. If positive, they will need to finish their quarantine in the corona hotel.
  • Vaccinated/ Recovered foreigners with permission to enter Israel: It is unclear if they will be allowed to self-quarantine, or if they will be sent to hotels.
• Visa holders will not be able to enter Israel from a Red country. 
• Student visa holders, who are vaccinated/recovered, who have traveled to a Red country before it became classified as Red will, hopefully, be able to obtain permits to  re-enter Israel. Details of this process have not yet been finalized.
• It is unclear at this time whether those who hold entry permits issued before their country turned Red, will be allowed to enter with those permits, once the country’s status changes to Red. In the past, we have seen permits cancelled once a country turns Red.
• It is uncertain whether eligible foreigners  who depart on flights on Tuesday night and land on Wednesday will be allowed into Israel. We will update when we have more information. 
• Ben Gurion Airport will remain open, and flights will continue to arrive and depart. However, it is wholly possible that airlines will begin to cancel flights as the majority of the world’s countries become Red.

Many of these rules still require final approval, and changes may yet occur.