The two windows that have deadlines
Two olim entitlements come with a clock. Miss the window and you lose the benefit.
- Ulpan Aleph (free Hebrew course): olim are entitled to a subsidized intensive Hebrew course, roughly 420 to 500 hours over about five months, usable once, within 18 months of your aliyah date. Your absorption advisor refers you. Eighteen months feels far away on arrival; many olim let it slip while "settling first" and then scramble.
- Driver's license conversion: an oleh has a 5-year window from the aliyah date to convert a foreign license (the general non-oleh window is just one year). The process runs through Misrad HaRishui: get your Israeli ID number, complete the Tofes Yarok (the green eyesight-and-fitness form, started at an optician), book a conversion test, and pass.
A simple prioritization for the first months
Use this order of attack once the week-one critical path is done:
| Priority | Item | Why this order |
|---|
| First | Short-term housing | You need a stable address before everything else; avoid a rushed long lease |
| Second | Start ulpan | Hebrew compounds: every week of delay slows every other task |
| Third | Convert license | Important but you have 5 years, so it can follow ulpan |
| Fourth | Long-term housing | Sign only once you know the neighborhood and have local references |
The most common mistake in this wave is signing a year-long lease in the first two weeks, before you understand neighborhoods, commute times, or which community fits you. Short-term first, long-term once you know the city.
For the customs and shipping side of housing (bringing your belongings, the olim shipment exemptions), the israeli-aliyah-customs-shipment-planner skill plans the three-shipment exemption and what you can bring duty-free.