Future Mother on A5? Enough With Security Deposits at the Hospital!

If you are an A5 visa holder who is about to give birth in Israel (or your partner is), you probably heard about the standard procedure of having to make a security cheque of 15,000 NIS at the hospital after giving birth.

According to PIBA procedure 2.2.0008, when the mother is an A5 visa holder, the baby’s birth notice from the hospital (form MR/22) does not include an Israeli ID number. In practice, birth notices of babies born to mothers on A5 visa sometimes do include a temporary ID number, but not a permanent ID number. For this reason, the National Insurance Institute cannot transfer the payment for the birth to the hospital “automatically” (like in the case when the mother is an Israeli citizen, and the baby does receive a permanent ID number at the hospital).

In these cases when the national insurance cannot transfer the money to the hospital “automatically”, the hospital requires the mother to leave a security deposit (usually a simple cheque) before leaving the hospital with the baby. While the amount of the deposit can vary, families are often asked for a security deposit of 15,000 NIS.

This has been the unchallenged reality of mothers who gave birth while on an A5 status for years and years.

When Mette reached out to us with the idea to write a step-by-step breakdown of the after-birth bureaucracy for A5 mothers, we knew it was time to tackle this bureaucratic monster. After reading the excellent article she sent us, we at AIC have decided that the security deposit reality had to change. It did not make any sense to us, that A5 mothers were being treated differently than Israeli mothers, even though they both have the same rights when it comes to Bituach Leumi (which is the relevant institution here). It didn’t make sense that new parents had to leave fat deposits of money, just to prove again their already-proven eligibility, and later chase after Bituach Leumi to annul the deposit, all while taking care of a newborn baby at home.

During the editing and writing of the article, our nonprofit organization has contacted the headquarters of the Israeli National Insurance Institution in order to clarify the need to leave a security deposit, as A5 holders are eligible for Bituach Leumi fully, like any other Israeli citizen. As it turned out, no one ever approached them with this topic before. After explaining the situation, we were able to learn of a quite straight-forward solution, that will relief A5 mothers and international families from the requirement to make a guarantee deposit at the hospital, and therefore cancel the need to later annul the deposit.

After originally publishing the revolutionary information on our website last May, we’ve gotten some inquires about complications in the issuance process of the approval. We immediately reached out to our friends at Bituach Leumi to make things clear, who were very cooperative! Together with the headquarters of the maternity department, we found a way to make the issuance process more feasible, and we’ve even collaborated with them on recreating the BL/303 form, and add a whole new section for it, expecially for our community.

We are so glad to be able to make this change for international families in Israel in their happy time around the birth of a child.

Curious about our solution that will allow you to not have to leave a security deposit? Read the full step by step here!