Israel visa and entry requirements

The ETA-IL

• Compulsory since 1 January 2025 for a visit to Israel. It is not a visa; it is an authorisation to board.
• It costs 25 new shekels, is valid for 2 years, and covers a visit of 90 days.
• Apply through the Israel Population and Immigration Authority, which also runs the eligibility check.
• You can visit as a tourist without a visa and are normally given permission to stay up to 3 months on entry.
• The passport must be valid at least 90 days after the day you arrive. That is shorter than the usual six months and easy to misread the other way.

Keep the entry card

• Visitors arriving at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion get an entry card, not a stamp in the passport. At other entry points you may get either.
• Keep the card with your passport until you leave. It is the evidence that you entered Israel legally, and you need it particularly when crossing into Palestine.
• A refusal is marked differently: the passport is stamped and two red lines drawn across it.

Stamps with restrictions

• Some travellers are given entry stamps reading "Palestinian Authority only" or "Judea and Samaria only", at the Allenby Bridge crossing with Jordan and at Ben Gurion.
• Anyone entering via Allenby has to pass through Israeli checkpoints and Israeli-controlled territory to reach Jerusalem, so that stamp limits the trip substantially.
• The FCDO says it is not clear how a traveller given this stamp at Ben Gurion can leave the airport without violating the restriction. If you receive one, ask at the desk before you walk away.

What border control can ask for

• Expect lengthy personal questioning and baggage searches on entry and exit. Allow extra time, especially during Israeli holidays and the summer season.
• Israeli security has sometimes requested access to travellers' personal email or social media accounts as a condition of entry. Devices may be searched and withheld.
• Longer questioning is more likely for travellers with Palestinian or Arab ancestry or ancestry of a predominantly Muslim country, with previous travel that may be considered suspicious, or considered to have publicly criticised the state of Israel.

Grounds on which entry can legally be refused

The FCDO lists these explicitly. A foreign national can be refused for having:

• publicly called for a boycott of Israel or Israeli settlements, or belonging to an organisation that has
• publicly denied the Holocaust or the 7 October attack
• publicly supported the prosecution of Israeli citizens abroad or in an international court for actions taken during military duties

Travellers in these categories may be held at border control for further checks, sometimes for several hours, including in detention facilities.

If you are refused entry

• You are booked on the next available flight back to where you flew in from, on the same airline.
• You may be taken to the Immigration Detention Centre, a few minutes' drive from the airport, until the flight departs. There is a telephone, information in English and medical assistance if needed.
• Your luggage stays at the airport. Tell officials straight away if you need something out of it, medication above all.
• You can contact the British Embassy from the detention centre. They can help where possible but cannot intervene in an immigration decision.

Dual nationals and children

• Children with at least one Israeli parent are considered Israeli nationals and must enter and leave Israel on an Israeli passport.
• Dual nationals holding Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian or Lebanese citizenship have previously been heavily questioned, denied entry and deported, and detained for days when no deportation flight was available. The Israeli authorities advise getting pre-approval from your nearest Israeli embassy, and the same applies if you have close family ties to those countries.
• British nationals of Palestinian origin on the Palestinian Population Register, or holding a Palestinian ID number, need a Palestinian passport or travel document to leave Gaza or the West Bank.
• Children aged 17 and under travelling alone or with one parent should carry a letter from their parents or guardians confirming consent, accommodation and contact details.

Crossing to Egypt at Taba

• Bring at least 170 US dollars in cash per person, plus extra: charges have been increasing at short notice since early March 2026, ATMs at the crossing are unreliable and frequently out of cash, and all payments are in cash. Draw dollars in Eilat before you go.
• Staying in Taba: a 20 dollar border tax, giving an entry permission stamp for up to 15 days.
• Elsewhere in Sinai, including Sharm El-Sheikh: 120 dollars.
• Beyond Sinai: 120 dollars plus a 30 dollar entry visa, plus a "letter of guarantee" costing around 20 dollars.
• By car, expect 100 dollars and extra for parking.
• Officials may ask you to remove hats, coats or religious clothing passing through the terminal.