The United States recently decided to bring forward the date of Israel's entry into the Visa Waiver Program, allowing Israeli citizens to travel to the United States without having to apply for a visa, instead opting for the ESTA. This decision comes in response to the worsening situation between Israel and Hamas.
The geopolitical context
In response to the escalating war between Israel and Hamas, the United States activated the visa waiver programme for Israelis on Thursday 19 October, allowing those wishing to visit the United States for 90 days or less to enter without needing to apply for a visa. On 27 September, the US announced that Israel would be part of the Visa Waiver Programme, joining a small group of 40 countries, mainly from Europe and Asia, whose citizens can travel to the US for three months without needing visas.
Initial date planned for programme implementation
Initially, it was announced that Israelis would be able to start travelling to the US without visas from 30 November. However, Israel has encountered difficulties in meeting the reciprocity requirement, which essentially means that all US citizens, including Palestinian Americans, must be treated equally when travelling to or transiting through Israel.
Conditions of eligibility
However, there are a number of reasons for this, certain categories of travellers are not eligible to this visa waiver programme. Travellers:
- with non-biometric or temporary/emergency documents,
- holding travel documents from countries not included in the Visa Waiver Programme,
- or those who have visited Cuba in recent years,
will not be able to travel to the United States under the VWP and will instead have to apply for a US visa.
An agency service 