Aliyah Checklist From The USA
Making Aliyah from the US: How to Actually Sequence the Move
Most people approach aliyah as a single decision. In practice it's a sequence — a few dozen tasks that have to happen in a particular order, because the slow ones quietly gate everything else. Get the order right and you land in Israel on schedule and unflustered. Get it wrong and you spend your first month chasing an FBI background check that should have been apostilled eight months earlier.
This is the short version of how we sequence a US-to-Israel move at Olim Advice. The full version is our free Aliyah Preparation Checklist — every document, every deadline, from eighteen months out to your first month in Israel.
Start with documents, because they take the longest
The single biggest source of delay isn't the Jewish Agency interview or the flights. It's the apostille and translation trail — and for Americans it's slightly more layered than people expect, because apostilles in the US come from two different places. State-issued documents (your birth certificate, marriage certificate, divorce decree) are apostilled by the Secretary of State of the issuing state. Federal documents — most importantly your FBI background check — are apostilled by the U.S. Department of State. Mix those up and you'll be mailing things back and forth.
So the rule is simple: begin gathering documents twelve to eighteen months out, before anything feels urgent. Passports with at least a year of validity. Your birth certificate, your parents' birth certificates, and — if you're claiming Jewish eligibility through a grandparent — their documentation too. Marriage certificate and ketubah; if you're divorced, the apostilled decree. A rabbi's letter on official letterhead, dated within the last twelve months, plus whatever synagogue and Jewish-education records you can gather.
For the criminal-background piece, you'll need an FBI Identity History Summary issued within the last six months, apostilled by the U.S. Department of State, plus any state-level checks required and background checks from anywhere you've lived for six months or more. Keep one master tracker for all of it: each document, who issues it, when you requested it, whether it's apostilled and translated, and when it expires. The families who keep that list religiously are the ones who don't get caught out.
The mistakes generic checklists make
A lot of aliyah advice floating around gets a few American-specific things wrong. Four are worth flagging because they cause real problems.
Your US tax obligations don't end when you leave. This is the one that surprises people most. The US taxes its citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live, so you'll keep filing federal returns after you make aliyah. You'll also likely need to report your Israeli bank accounts: FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) if your foreign accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate at any point in the year, and possibly FATCA (Form 8938) above its thresholds. Your IRA and 401(k) need a look under the US–Israel treaty too. None of this is a reason not to move — but it's a reason to talk to a US–Israel cross-border tax advisor before you start moving assets, not after.
Don't cancel your right to vote. Some "things to close before you leave" lists tell you to cancel your voter registration. As a US citizen abroad you keep the right to vote in federal elections — arrange overseas absentee voting through the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) instead of giving it up. (On the Israeli side, by the way, there's no voter registration to do at all: once you hold a Teudat Zehut, you're automatically on the electoral roll.)
Don't surrender your state driver's license. Notify your state DMV of your address change if you need to, but keep the valid license. You can drive in Israel on a foreign license for the first year after entry, and that valid license is exactly what you need to convert to an Israeli one — if you held a full license for five years before aliyah, you can usually convert with no driving test. Surrender it and you throw that away.
Your pet needs the titer test. The US is not on Israel's rabies-free list, so the process is the full one: an import permit from the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, an ISO-standard microchip fitted before the rabies vaccination, a rabies vaccination at least thirty days before travel, and — the step pets from rabies-free countries skip — a rabies antibody (titer) blood test, which is valid for life once documented. You'll also need a health certificate from a USDA-accredited vet endorsed by USDA APHIS within ten days of travel, and you should confirm your dog's breed isn't on Israel's restricted list. Start this at least four months out, because the titer test has its own waiting period.
Money, work and Hebrew run in parallel
Once documents are moving, the six-to-twelve-month window is for the things that take preparation but not apostilles.
On the financial side: research how Israeli banks open accounts for olim, get US bank letters confirming your history, sort out how you'll move funds and exchange currency for any large transfer, and inform your card providers. Pull together bank statements, three years of tax returns, and your proof of funds for the application. Decide what happens to US property — sale or managed rental — and update your wills and estate planning. And separate from the FBAR/FATCA piece above, read up on Israeli tax obligations and the US–Israel treaty before you become resident.
Professionally, get your qualifications assessed for Israeli equivalency early if your field is licensed, reformat your résumé to Israeli style, and start networking through LinkedIn and professional groups before you arrive. And start Hebrew now — not just conversational ulpan, but the professional vocabulary of your field. Functional Hebrew is the difference between your first month feeling like an adventure and feeling like a wall.
A couple of practical American footnotes
Two small things that catch US olim specifically. First, voltage: Israel runs 230V, and many US appliances are single-voltage 110V — they won't run without a transformer, and often it's cheaper to replace them than to ship them. Second, health: there's no national system to deregister from, but do handle COBRA or your marketplace coverage deliberately, and research the Israeli system (Kupat Holim) so you can choose a fund the moment you arrive.
If anyone in the family manages a chronic condition, start the continuity-of-care research early — confirm the medication is available in Israel and under what name (get the generic name for everything), line up a specialist, and carry extra supplies. It's the single biggest source of avoidable first-month stress, and it's entirely preventable with a few months' notice.
The last stretch, and the first month
In the final one to three months, the application goes in: the complete file to the Jewish Agency, the interview, preliminary approval, and a consulate appointment if required. Book flights with a generous luggage allowance, arrange your first weeks' accommodation and airport pickup, and hold an accessible emergency fund.
Then, in your first month in Israel: register with the Ministry of Interior and collect your Teudat Zehut, register for Bituach Leumi, choose a Kupat Holim, open a bank account, enroll the kids in school, start ulpan, and begin the driving-license conversion. It's a lot — but if the documents are done and the tracker is current, it's a month of registrations, not a month of firefighting.
A second pair of eyes is free
No two families follow this identically. Some have pets, some have children, some are renting out a US home rather than selling. Treat the checklist as a master list to adapt to your own circumstances — and if you'd like someone to look over your timeline and tell you which parts actually apply to you, that's what we do.
Olim Advice offers free guidance to every oleh. Download the full Aliyah Preparation Checklist, or reach out and we'll help you sequence the move from first document to first month.