Investors will now receive special visas for immigration to Israel

The Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Economy in Israel Avi Hasson has announced that Israel will launch special investor visas for technology sector investors by the end of November. Around thousands of investors across the globe will be offered an invitation to invest in Israel through this special visa. This was informed by Hasson to Business Insider at his Tel Aviv office. At the DLD Innovation conference, Hasson said that Israel needed more entrepreneurs to come and start enterprises in the nation. He informed that the Ministry of Finance and Immigration Authorities were working together to set up a system that would accentuate the entry of investors from across the globe. Israel has been preparing to launch the special visa for investors for some months now as informed by the Jerusalem Post. Hasson also elaborated that the special visa for the investors will be launched in some weeks. The overseas investors who wish to secure this visa have to first complete a stint at one of the twelve incubators and accelerators in Israel. This will help the entrepreneurs to find a pathway for themselves in the technology sector in the nation. Later the investors will be given the permit to start their company and run it for five years, said Hassan. The Chief Scientist is also inclined to bring in conventional Jews and women to participate in the technology sector in Israel. He was also not able to give the specific estimation of the cost of the visas but said that it should be less than $1,000. Meanwhile, the experts in the technology sector are of the view that Israel needs more skilled workforce prior to increasing the number of technology companies. The president of luxury Smartphone Company Sirin Labs Moshe Hogeg said that the Government of Israel must focus on attracting highly-skilled engineers. The reason is that the new technology enterprises have to compete with big companies such as Facebook, Apple, and Google in terms of workforce. He said that the need of the hour was to offer more visas to engineers first than investors. As Israel was starting new ventures that were not much big in size, the immediate need was to increase the visas for skilled engineers who are scarce in Israel. Currently, Israel has 4,000 visas for specialists. These visas are given to people with high skills across diverse industries. Out of the 4,000 visas, 1,000 visas are available to people in the technology sector.