Israel’s US visa waiver program at risk of cancellation, minister warns

The Interior Ministry has not received money needed for processing American requests, which could lead to retaliation in kind against Israel.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Internal funding problems are putting the U.S. visa waiver program at risk, Ynet reported Thursday, citing a letter then-Interior Minister Moshe Arbel sent to the Finance Ministry almost two weeks ago.

The report said Arbel complained that his ministry’s Population and Immigration Authority (PISA), which is in charge of processing all visa-exempt entry requests, has not received the funding for the program.

Arbel threatened to shut down the program by the end of July if funding is not immediately found.

“Under these conditions — without a designated funding source and amid a surge in demand—the Population and Immigration Authority will struggle to maintain service,” Arbel wrote to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

“To prevent slow, partial, or inefficient service, I’ve instructed the authority to prepare for a system shutdown within 14 days if the appropriate budget — covering both current and projected revenue through the end of the year — is not transferred.”

If Israel does not allow visa-free entry to Americans, the report said, it is then highly likely that the U.S. would retaliate in kind and eligible Israelis would no longer be allowed to travel to the United States for tourism or business purposes for up to 90 days without needing a traditional visa, which used to take weeks or even months to receive due to the high demand.

When the two allies granted each other the right in late 2023 for their citizens to enter each other’s countries by filling out a simple request online approved within days, the government had decided that the money to pay for PISA’s Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) program would come from the application fees.

However, this decision has yet to be anchored in law, and Arbel noted that because the legislative process has stalled in the Knesset, the program has been left unfunded.

Although the fee is minimal — $6.75 per request — about 550,000 applications have been filled out online since the program began, totaling a $3.7 million shortfall to date.

In addition, more than 1 million additional visitors are expected to arrive in Israel through the ETA system by the end of 2025, the minister wrote, and there is simply no way the authority can process the requests without an expansion of manpower — which it has no money to hire.

The Finance Ministry blamed the legislative problems on the ultra-Orthodox parties, including Arbel’s own Shas party.

The necessary bill, a senior finance ministry official wrote to the minister, “is ready for final readings. But due to the legislative boycott by Haredi factions, it has yet to be brought to a full vote and therefore remains inactive.”

“Minister Arbel, himself a member of the Haredi parties, would have done well to urge his colleagues to support the legislation and ensure the continued operation of the ETA system. Until the bill is passed, the budget cannot be released. In the meantime, the Interior Ministry is welcome to propose an alternative funding solution,” the official added.

The haredi parties refused to vote on government bills in recent months because the coalition was dragging its feet over introducing a new draft exemption law for those who learn Torah all day, which had been a key coalition promise made to the ultra-Orthodox when the government was formed.

This ultimately led to the haredi parties leaving the government over the past two weeks, although they promised not to help the Opposition dissolve the Knesset as yet, which would automatically trigger new elections.