Israel’s government is promoting a plan to increase the percentage of workers employed in the tech sector, including offering visas to foreign students and experts to fill job vacancies.
Backed by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and Science and Technology Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen, the idea behind it is also to encourage Jews involved in the tech industry abroad to immigrate to Israel, according to Israeli business daily Globes.
Its goal is to help Israel meet its target of having 15 percent of its workforce employed in the tech sector by 2026.
The plan is divided into three tracks.
In the first one, foreign experts will be granted work visas if they meet a number of conditions.
The second is geared for Jewish tech workers who want to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return but would like to spend a trial period in the country before immigrating.
As part of the third track, foreign tech students in Israel will be granted three-year work visas. This track is designed for the roughly 1,000 technology students from India currently in the country. However, no more than 500 work visas will be granted at any one time according to the plan, according to Globes.