Quick Answer: Israel has one of the most developed surrogacy legal frameworks in the world, now accessible to heterosexual couples, single women, single men, and same-sex male couples following the 2022 amendment to the Surrogacy Agreements Law 5756-1996. The process requires approval from a seven-member government committee, a formal agreement reviewed under strict standards, and a Family Court parentage order before the child's birth. The critical limitation for foreign nationals: only Israeli citizens and permanent residents qualify as intended parents. Foreign nationals who are neither citizens nor permanent residents of Israel cannot legally engage a surrogate in Israel, and surrogacy tourism is explicitly prohibited.

Israel's approach to surrogacy has attracted international attention for nearly three decades. The original 1996 law was one of the first in the world to provide a comprehensive statutory framework — and it was also among the most restrictive, limiting access to heterosexual married couples where the woman could not carry a pregnancy. In January 2022 the Knesset passed a sweeping amendment that changed who is eligible, streamlined the parentage process, and created a clearer path for single men and same-sex couples who had previously been forced to pursue surrogacy abroad at great expense and legal uncertainty.

For Israelis, the reforms were long overdue. For foreign nationals with ties to Israel — diaspora families, olim who moved abroad, investors with Israeli connections — the question is whether they can access this system. The answer, with important nuances, is generally no. Understanding exactly where those boundaries lie, and what alternatives exist, is what this guide is for.

The primary legislation is the Chok Haskamot Pesundot (Ishur Haskama Vemaamad HaYeled HaNolad) — the Surrogacy Agreements (Approval of Agreement and Status of Newborn) Law 5756-1996 — as substantially amended by the Surrogacy Agreements (Approval of Agreement and Status of Newborn) Amendment Law 5782-2022, which came into force on 24 January 2022.

The law covers gestational surrogacy exclusively. Traditional surrogacy — where the surrogate's own egg is used and she is therefore genetically related to the child — is not recognized and cannot be approved. All Israeli surrogacy arrangements therefore involve IVF: eggs and sperm from the intended parents or donors are used to create an embryo, which is then transferred to the surrogate's uterus.

The 2022 amendment's key changes were:

  • Extending eligibility to single men and same-sex male couples, who had previously been entirely excluded and forced to seek surrogacy in Georgia, the United States, or Canada.
  • Creating a clearer legal route for single women who do not have a medical indication.
  • Introducing pre-birth parentage orders, allowing the Family Court to recognize the intended parents' parental status from the 32nd week of pregnancy rather than requiring them to wait until after delivery.
  • Transferring approval authority from a standalone inter-ministerial committee to committees operating under the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services.

The law operates alongside the Genetic Information Law 5761-2000 and the Public Health (In-Vitro Fertilization) Regulations 5747-1987, which govern the medical aspects of the IVF process used in surrogacy.

2. Who Qualifies as Intended Parents

The 2022 amendment defines eligible intended parents broadly by family structure but narrowly by nationality and residency. To qualify, intended parents must meet all of the following requirements:

Israeli citizens or permanent residents. At least one intended parent must be an Israeli citizen. For couples, both must be Israeli citizens or one must be a citizen and the other a permanent resident (holding A/7 status). Temporary residency alone — including B/1 work permits — does not satisfy the residency requirement.

Genetic connection. At least one intended parent must have a genetic connection to the child. This means at least one of the intended parents must contribute either their egg or their sperm to the IVF process. Arrangements using both donor eggs and donor sperm — where neither intended parent has any genetic link to the child — cannot be approved under the Surrogacy Agreements Law. Such families are directed toward adoption instead.

Medical or social indication. The intended parents must demonstrate either a medical reason (the woman cannot carry a pregnancy due to a physical medical condition) or — for categories approved in 2022 — a structural reason (single men, male same-sex couples, and single women who meet the criteria of the relevant ministerial committee). Heterosexual couples where the woman is medically able to carry a pregnancy cannot ordinarily access surrogacy on non-medical grounds.

Age and fitness. Intended parents must be adults. The committee also reviews psychological fitness and the ability to raise a child. There is no hard upper age limit in the statute, but the committee exercises discretion and may decline applications where the intended parent's age creates concerns about the child's welfare.

In Practice: The Approval Committee that handles applications from single men and same-sex male couples (operating under the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services under Section 5E of the amended law) receives substantially more applications than it did before 2022. As of 2026, waiting times from first application to committee hearing have extended to approximately four to six months for this category, compared to two to four months for the heterosexual couple and single woman tracks handled by a separate committee under the Ministry of Health. Applicants who submit incomplete documentation — missing psychological evaluations, incomplete medical records, or notarized translations of foreign-language documents — are placed in a secondary queue that can add two to three months to the timeline. The Ministry of Health committee (for medical indications) is reached through the hospital's IVF unit; the Ministry of Social Affairs committee (for single men and same-sex couples) is contacted directly.

3. Requirements for Surrogates

The surrogate — referred to in Israeli law as the neset (carrier) — must satisfy specific statutory criteria. She must be:

  • An unmarried Israeli citizen or permanent resident (divorced and widowed women qualify; married women do not).
  • Between 22 and 38 years old at the time the agreement is signed.
  • A woman who has previously given birth to at least one child of her own and currently has custody of that child. She may have no more than four living children at the time of the agreement.
  • Of a different religion from the intended parents — a requirement designed to avoid halachic complications that would arise if a Jewish woman were carrying a child for a Jewish couple (the concern is that a child born to a Jewish mother is halachically Jewish regardless of the biological parents' status, which could create personal status disputes).
  • Medically and psychologically screened and found suitable by the relevant hospital's specialist team.

The surrogate cannot be a first-degree relative of either intended parent (parent, sibling, child). Close relatives carrying for each other creates coercive dynamics the law seeks to prevent.

Most surrogates in Israel find their match either through personal connections, through licensed surrogacy agencies (shetuf nachon), or through online communities. The law does not prohibit matching agencies; it requires only that the final agreement be submitted to and approved by the committee regardless of how the match was made.

In Practice: The religion-difference requirement catches many families by surprise. A Jewish intended couple must find a non-Jewish surrogate — typically a Muslim, Druze, or Christian Arab woman, or a foreign-national permanent resident of a different faith. In practice, this creates a much smaller pool of potential surrogates and is a significant driver of the matching timeline. Intended parents who work with a licensed agency typically spend three to nine months in the matching phase. Some agencies maintain databases of pre-screened potential surrogates, which can shorten the wait to one to three months. The agency fee for full matching and coordination services currently runs NIS 30,000 to 60,000 for Israeli-domestic arrangements, separate from the surrogate's own compensation.

4. The Approval Committee Process

No surrogacy arrangement in Israel can proceed without committee approval. The application goes to one of the two government committees depending on the intended parents' category, and the committee must authorize the agreement before any medical procedures may begin.

The application file must include:

  1. A detailed medical file for the intended parent(s) establishing the medical or social indication for surrogacy.
  2. A medical and psychological evaluation of the surrogate, conducted by the hospital's IVF team.
  3. A draft surrogacy agreement that complies with the requirements of the law (see Section 5 below).
  4. Social worker reports on both the intended parents and the surrogate, evaluating family stability and readiness.
  5. Legal opinions or explanations if any unusual circumstances are present — for example, one party was born abroad, there are assets or residency ties in more than one country, or donor eggs or sperm are being used.

The committee meets and votes on the application. Members include a physician specializing in obstetrics, a clinical psychologist, a social worker, a religious scholar, a legal expert, and two public representatives. The committee may approve the agreement as submitted, request modifications, or reject the application.

An applicant who is denied may request an internal review before the same committee, or file an appeal to the Family Court under Section 22 of the law. In practice, most rejections are for technical or documentation deficiencies rather than substantive eligibility disqualifications, and they are often curable by resubmission.

In Practice: The committee convenes approximately once a month for each category. Applications are reviewed in the order received, but files are formally docketed only once all required documents are submitted and verified by the Ministry. The most common reason for docketing delay is incomplete psychological assessments — the assessments must be conducted by a Ministry-approved psychologist, not by the parties' private therapist, and the approved list is not publicly searchable; applicants must ask their IVF clinic for the current list. From the date a complete file is docketed, most applicants receive a hearing date within 30 to 60 days. Post-hearing decisions are typically issued within two to four weeks.

5. The Surrogacy Agreement: What It Must Cover

The surrogacy agreement (haskama pesunda) is the contractual foundation of the arrangement and must comply with the requirements set out in Section 2 of the law. An agreement that does not meet the statutory requirements will not be approved by the committee.

The agreement must address:

  • Medical arrangements: The IVF protocol, the clinic conducting the procedures, who bears the cost of repeated cycles if the first transfer does not result in pregnancy, and the maximum number of embryo transfer attempts.
  • Compensation: The schedule of payments to the surrogate, itemized by milestone. The committee must approve the compensation amounts as reasonable. Payments that the committee views as disproportionate or as creating a financial incentive that overrides the surrogate's genuine free consent will result in rejection.
  • Pregnancy and delivery: Provisions covering prenatal care, hospitalization, delivery location, the surrogate's right to make medical decisions during pregnancy (subject to specified limits agreed in advance), and the handling of multiple pregnancies and selective reduction decisions.
  • Parentage: A clear statement that the intended parents are the legal parents of the child and that the surrogate waives all parental claims, including the right to custody.
  • Termination: The circumstances under which either party may withdraw from the agreement before an embryo transfer, and the financial consequences of early withdrawal.
  • Confidentiality: Israeli law allows the surrogate to request that her identity remain confidential from the child until the child reaches adulthood, but the child has a right under Section 15 to know their origin once they turn 18.

The agreement must be signed before a notary or an authorized court officer, and both parties must have received independent legal advice before signing. An attorney who represents both sides simultaneously cannot issue the independent-advice certification the committee requires.

In Practice: Attorney fees for drafting and negotiating a surrogacy agreement in Israel currently run NIS 10,000 to 20,000 for each side, and the law requires each party to have their own counsel. Total legal costs for the agreement phase alone — both sides combined — are therefore typically NIS 20,000 to 40,000. This is separate from the costs of the IVF procedures (approximately NIS 12,000 to 18,000 per cycle at a private hospital, with the National Health Insurance Law 5754-1994 covering costs for the first two cycles for eligible Israeli residents through their kupat holim), the committee filing fee (NIS 600 as of 2026), and agency fees if a matching agency is used.

6. Parentage Orders and the Legal Status of the Child

One of the most significant reforms in the 2022 amendment was the introduction of pre-birth parentage orders (tzav horot trom-leidah). Previously, intended parents could only obtain a parentage order after delivery, which created a period between birth and the order during which the child's legal parentage was technically unsettled. The 2022 law now allows the Family Court to issue a parentage order from the 32nd week of pregnancy.

The court application under Section 4 of the amended law requires:

  1. A copy of the committee-approved surrogacy agreement.
  2. Genetic evidence confirming the intended parents' biological connection to the child (typically a chromosomal report from the IVF process).
  3. A letter from the treating physician confirming the pregnancy has passed 32 weeks and there are no medical contraindications to issuing the order.
  4. A social worker's report on the intended parents' home environment and readiness for parenthood.

Once issued, the parentage order names the intended parents as the legal parents of the child. The birth certificate issued by the hospital and the Population and Immigration Authority (Rasham HaToshavim) will list the intended parents — not the surrogate. The surrogate does not appear on the birth certificate and has no parental rights after the order takes effect.

If the intended parents fail to obtain a pre-birth order (or, if that was not possible, an order within a short time after birth), the child is in a legally ambiguous position where neither the surrogate nor the intended parents are clearly established as the legal parents. This ambiguity affects the child's citizenship, passport applications, enrollment in kupat holim, and National Insurance Institute benefits. Most Israeli family law practitioners strongly advise obtaining the pre-birth order.

In Practice: Family Court parentage order applications for domestic surrogacy arrangements are handled by the relevant district's family court. In Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa, these applications are typically heard within three to six weeks of filing. The court fee for a parentage order application is NIS 803 as of 2026 under the Courts Regulations. Most applications are granted at the first hearing without opposition. The surrogate's presence at the hearing is not required if she has provided a notarized affidavit confirming she consents to the order and waives all parental claims. After the order is issued, registration with the Population and Immigration Authority typically takes one to two weeks; the newborn's Israeli identity number and kupat holim enrollment follow automatically.

7. Foreign Nationals: The Critical Rules

The question most non-Israeli readers ask about Israeli surrogacy is simple: can I use an Israeli surrogate? The short answer is no. But the details matter.

Who cannot use Israeli surrogacy:

  • Foreign nationals who are not Israeli citizens and do not hold permanent residency (yoshev keva) status in Israel.
  • Tourists and visitors on any type of tourist visa.
  • Foreign nationals holding temporary work permits, student visas, or any temporary residency status that does not constitute permanent residency under the Entry into Israel Law 5712-1952.
  • Israeli citizens who have been living abroad for years and whose center of life (merkaz chayim) is demonstrably in another country — while citizenship alone technically satisfies the citizenship requirement, the committee also examines whether the intended parents are genuine Israeli residents, and a committee may decline an application from someone whose only connection to Israel is a passport.

What foreign nationals with Israeli ties should know:

  • A foreign national who is married to an Israeli citizen is not automatically eligible. The non-Israeli spouse must hold permanent residency in Israel, not merely be in the country on a tourist or temporary status.
  • A returning Israeli citizen who reestablishes residence in Israel is eligible once their residency is reestablished. This means physically returning to live in Israel, not just maintaining a mailing address or bank account there.
  • Diaspora Jews who are planning to make aliyah are sometimes advised to apply for surrogacy approval after completing aliyah and obtaining their teudat zehut, not before. The committee will not approve an application from someone whose Israeli residency is speculative or future.

Surrogacy tourism is prohibited: Israel does not permit foreign nationals to enter the country for the purpose of engaging a surrogate. Entering Israel as a tourist and attempting to identify and contract with a surrogate privately — circumventing the approval committee — is illegal. A surrogate who enters an unapproved arrangement risks criminal liability for receiving compensation for pregnancy under an unapproved agreement (Section 7(d) of the law), and the intended parents cannot obtain a valid parentage order for a child born from such an arrangement.

In Practice: The Population and Immigration Authority (PIBA) is aware of cases where foreign nationals have attempted to circumvent the surrogacy law by forming private arrangements. In several documented cases, the children born from unapproved arrangements have been left in legal limbo — neither the surrogate's parental rights nor the intended parents' parental rights have been established, because no parentage order can issue without a committee-approved agreement as its foundation. The Foreign Ministry has also declined to issue Israeli passports to children born abroad from unapproved surrogacy arrangements involving Israeli genetic parents where the intended parents were not Israeli residents. Families in these situations face protracted litigation that has, in some cases, taken three to five years to resolve.

8. Cross-Border Surrogacy for Israelis: Going Abroad

Israeli intended parents who cannot find a surrogate in Israel, or who belong to a category that was historically excluded (and are now impatient for the domestic market to catch up with demand), sometimes pursue surrogacy in another country. The most common destinations for Israeli families have been the United States (primarily California, Nevada, and Washington state, where gestational surrogacy is legally settled), Georgia (particularly before 2023, when Georgian law restricted access), Canada (altruistic surrogacy only), and certain Eastern European jurisdictions.

The key Israeli legal issues for families who pursue foreign surrogacy are:

Parentage recognition in Israel. A foreign court parentage order does not automatically bind the Israeli Population Registry or the National Insurance Institute. The intended parents must bring a recognition application to the Israeli Family Court under the Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Law 5718-1958 to convert the foreign order into an Israeli-recognized judgment. The Family Court examines whether the foreign court had proper jurisdiction, whether the procedure was fair, and whether recognition would violate Israeli public policy. Most US state court surrogacy orders are recognized without difficulty.

The child's Israeli citizenship. If at least one intended parent is an Israeli citizen and that parent has a genetic connection to the child (which Israeli law requires for surrogacy arrangements), the child is entitled to Israeli citizenship by descent under Section 4(a) of the Citizenship Law 5712-1952 upon registration with the Israeli consul or, on return to Israel, at the Population and Immigration Authority. The parentage order — whether Israeli or foreign and recognized — is the documentary foundation for this registration.

Tax and National Insurance implications. A child born abroad via surrogacy to Israeli parents should be registered with Bituach Leumi as a dependent at the earliest opportunity. Delayed registration can affect retroactive child allowance payments under the National Insurance Law 5755-1995 (child allowances begin accruing from the date of registration, not retroactively from birth). In 2026, the monthly child allowance for a first child is NIS 170, rising to NIS 305 for a third child and higher amounts for fourth and subsequent children.

In Practice: Israeli families who have used surrogacy in the US typically work with an American surrogacy agency and an American attorney, who together guide the US court proceedings and obtain either a pre-birth or post-birth parentage order from the relevant state. The total cost for gestational surrogacy in California in 2026 is typically USD 130,000 to 170,000, covering agency fees, surrogate compensation, legal fees, and medical costs. On return to Israel, the Israeli attorney's work involves: (a) filing the parentage recognition application at the Family Court (approximately NIS 800 court fee plus NIS 8,000 to 15,000 in attorney fees for an uncontested recognition); (b) registering the child at the Israeli consulate or with PIBA; and (c) opening a Bituach Leumi child file. The full process from arriving in Israel to having the child fully enrolled in the Israeli system typically takes two to four months.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. The Surrogacy Agreements Law 5756-1996 and the 2022 amendment restrict intended parenthood to Israeli citizens or permanent residents with a valid A/7 or B/1 permit. Foreign nationals who are neither citizens nor permanent residents of Israel cannot enter a surrogacy agreement under Israeli law, regardless of whether they are willing to pay. Surrogacy tourism to Israel is not permitted.
Most intended parents should budget 18 to 36 months from the first Approval Committee application to the child's birth. The committee review and approval takes two to six months, matching with a surrogate another three to nine months, IVF stimulation and embryo transfer cycles three to six months per attempt, and a successful pregnancy nine months. Cases where the first transfer does not result in pregnancy or where the committee requests additional documentation can run longer.
No. Under Section 4 of the Surrogacy Agreements Law as amended in 2022, the intended parents are the legal parents of the child from the moment of birth — provided the Family Court has issued a parentage order (tzav horot). The surrogate's name does not appear on the birth certificate. If the intended parents do not obtain the parentage order before or shortly after birth, there can be a period of legal ambiguity, which is why the pre-birth order available from the 32nd week of pregnancy is strongly recommended.
The Approval Committee sets permitted compensation amounts. In 2026, surrogate compensation typically ranges from NIS 80,000 to NIS 130,000 over the course of the agreement, paid in installments tied to milestones: agreement signing, positive pregnancy test, end of first trimester, and delivery. Additional reimbursements cover pregnancy-related expenses, loss of income during bedrest periods, and psychological support costs. The committee must approve any supplementary payments above the standard schedule.
Israeli citizenship alone is no longer sufficient — the law now requires that the intended parents be Israeli residents at the time of the application, not just citizens. An Israeli citizen who has been living abroad for years and whose center of life is in another country will likely not qualify unless they can establish Israeli residency before or during the process. The Approval Committee reviews residency as part of the eligibility determination. Consult an Israeli family law attorney before applying.

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Adv. Eli Shimony

Adv. Eli Shimony

Licensed Israeli Attorney

Adv. Shimony advises Israeli and foreign families on family law matters including surrogacy, IVF parentage, cross-border child registration, and Israeli citizenship procedures for children born abroad.

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