Can an Israeli employer charge a foreign worker for recruitment fees, work permits, or visa costs?

Israel built this rule after years of workers arriving already in debt to brokers. The Foreign Workers Law places the cost of obtaining and renewing a permit on the employer, along with medical insurance and suitable accommodation, and makes a written contract in a language the worker understands mandatory. The Wage Protection Law then closes the back door: an employer who withholds sums outside the Section 25 list commits an offense, and the worker can recover the amount together with statutory compensation for delayed wages. Government-to-government recruitment arrangements, run through the International Organization for Migration, exist precisely to take broker fees out of the chain.

In practice the charge rarely appears on a payslip labeled as a recruitment fee. It surfaces as an inflated accommodation deduction, an unexplained advance, a loan repayment, or a deduction for tools and equipment. Each of those is reviewable, and the payslip is the evidence, which is why the law requires one to be issued. A worker can complain to the Regulation and Enforcement Administration at the Ministry of Labor without a lawyer, and can also sue in the Labor Court, where claims by foreign workers are heard with an interpreter where needed. The cost of the B/1 work permit itself always sits with the sponsoring employer.

From the full guide: Foreign Worker Rights in Israel: Labor Law Protections and Entitlements

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