Will you still receive CPP and OAS once you are living in Israel?
Your CPP follows you to Israel for life; your OAS may not. That single split is the thing most Canadian olim get wrong. The Canada Pension Plan is portable because you earned it through contributions, so it is paid into an Israeli account whatever happens.1 Old Age Security is residence-based: unless you lived in Canada at least 20 years after age 18, it stops six months after you leave.2
Here is the cross-border trap. In a normal social-security agreement, Canada would let you add your Israeli years to your Canadian years to reach that 20-year OAS bar. The Canada-Israel deal is not that kind of agreement. It is an Interim Agreement that only coordinates contributions for posted workers, it explicitly cannot help you qualify for OAS or any other benefit.4 So an oleh who left Canada with, say, 14 years of residence does not get rescued by the agreement. The OAS simply stops.
Not advice
Why is CPP fully portable but OAS is not?
Because they are built on opposite foundations. CPP is a contributory pension: you (and your employers) paid into it from your Canadian earnings, you own that entitlement, and Canada pays it to you wherever you live, there is no residence test to keep it flowing.1 OAS is a residence-based pension funded from general revenue; how long you are allowed to receive it abroad depends on how many years you lived in Canada.2
The mechanics for an oleh: once you change your address with Service Canada, future CPP payments can be deposited directly to your Israeli bank or converted to מטבע חוץ (Matbea Chutz) for the country you live in.1 OAS, by contrast, runs a clock: if you do not meet the 20-year residence test, payments are cut off after an absence of more than 6 months beyond the month you left.2 If you later return to Canada, OAS can resume, but while you are settled in Israel without the 20 years, it is paused.
What does the 20-year OAS rule actually require?
It requires at least 20 years of residence in Canada after you turned 18 to keep OAS payable while you live abroad.2 Meet that, and OAS is paid to you in Israel indefinitely. Fall short, and the only other door is a genuine social security agreement that lets you combine Canadian and foreign residence to reach 20 years.2 The Canada-Israel agreement is not one of those, see the next section, so for most olim it is the 20-year test or nothing.
Why will the Canada-Israel agreement not help you qualify for OAS?
Because it is the wrong type of agreement. The arrangement between the two countries is an Interim Agreement on Social Security, in force since 1 September 2003°, and the CRA states plainly that it is “a limited agreement dealing only with contributions” that “is not an agreement of the standard type and cannot help people to qualify” for social-security benefits from Canada or Israel.4
What it does do is narrow: it stops double contributions for posted workers. A Canadian sent to work temporarily in Israel keeps paying into CPP instead of the Israeli system, and vice versa, documented with a CPT140 Certificate of Coverage.4 Useful if you are seconded across the border for a few years. Useless for an oleh trying to fill an OAS residence gap. A standard agreement (the kind Canada has with countries like the United States) would let you total up periods to meet a minimum; the Israel agreement deliberately does not.5“The agreement exists” is true but misleading, it is not a totalization agreement.
Knowledge check
You made aliyah after 15 years of Canadian residence and you are now retired in Israel. What happens to your OAS under the Canada-Israel agreement?
How does Canada tax your CPP and OAS once you live in Israel?
Canada applies a flat 25% non-resident withholding tax to CPP and OAS paid to a non-resident, but the Canada-Israel tax treaty can reduce that rate.1 This is a separate question from whether you receive the pension at all (sections above), it is about how much Canada keeps before the money reaches you. High earners face a second Canadian charge: the OAS recovery tax, commonly called the clawback.
The recovery tax claws back 15% of your net world income above an annual threshold of CAD 93,454 (the figure for 2025 income), rising until OAS is fully recovered, around CAD 151,668 for ages 65 to 74.3 Non-residents generally settle this through an Old Age Security Return of Income. The point for olim: a comfortable retirement income can erode the OAS you do receive, on top of the withholding.
| Feature | CPP (Canada Pension Plan) | OAS (Old Age Security) |
|---|---|---|
| Basis | Contributory, you earned it | Residence-based, funded from general revenue |
| Paid in Israel? | Yes, for life, regardless of how long you are abroad1 | Only if you had 20 years of Canadian residence after age 182 |
| If you fall short of the rule | Not applicable, no residence test | Stops ~6 months after you leave Canada2 |
| Does the Canada-Israel agreement help? | No need, already portable | No, it is contributions-only, cannot total periods4 |
| Canadian non-resident tax | 25% withholding, treaty-reducible1 | 25% withholding, plus recovery tax above CAD 93,4543 |
How do you apply for CPP and OAS from Israel?
You apply directly to Service Canada from Israel, there is no need to be physically in Canada.1 CPP can be claimed as early as 60 (reduced) or as late as 70 (enhanced); OAS normally starts at 65 and can be deferred to 70 for a larger amount. Apply a few months before you want payments to begin, and tell Service Canada you are a non-resident so withholding and any treaty rate are set correctly from the start.1
Keep proof of your Canadian residence years, landing records, tax returns, address history , because the 20-year OAS test turns entirely on documented residence after age 18.2 Register your Israeli tax position early with מס הכנסה (Mas Hachnasa) (the Israel Tax Authority) so your resident status is on record when these foreign pensions start arriving.
How does Israel treat your Canadian pensions?
Israel gives new olim a 10-year exemption from Israeli tax on foreign-source income, which generally covers CPP, OAS, and other Canadian pension income during that window.6 Note the 2026 reform: from 1 January 2026, the exemption became report-but-still-tax-exempt, the foreign pension income stays exempt from Israeli tax, but olim who arrive in 2026 or later must now report it to the Israel Tax Authority.6 Keep the three treatments in separate columns: Canada withholds 25% (treaty-reduced) and may apply the recovery tax;3 Israel exempts the income for ten years (reporting from 2026);6 and the treatydecides which country has the final taxing right and prevents the same dollar being taxed twice. They do not collapse into one “the tax is X” answer. After the 10-year window, the income becomes part of your Israeli קצבת זקנה (Kitzvat Zikna) retirement picture and the treaty mechanics carry more weight.
CPP and OAS behave very differently once you make aliyah. CPP (the Canada Pension Plan) is contributory and fully portable: you earned it through contributions, so it is paid to you in Israel for life regardless of how long you stay abroad. OAS (Old Age Security) is residence-based: unless you lived in Canada for at least 20 years after age 18, it stops about six months after you leave Canada. The Canada-Israel social security deal is only an Interim Agreement that coordinates contributions for posted workers, so it cannot total up your Israeli years to help you reach the 20-year OAS bar. Canada applies a flat 25% non-resident withholding tax to both, reducible under the Canada-Israel tax treaty, and high earners may also face the OAS recovery tax (the clawback) above CAD 93,454 of net world income. You apply to Service Canada directly from Israel, and Israel gives new olim a 10-year exemption on this foreign income, now report-but-still-exempt for those arriving from 1 January 2026.
Yes. CPP is contributory and fully portable, so it is paid to you in Israel for life no matter how long you stay abroad. Once you update your address with Service Canada, payments can be deposited to your Israeli bank or converted to the local currency. Canada withholds 25% as non-resident tax, which the Canada-Israel tax treaty can reduce.
Because OAS is residence-based. If you have not lived in Canada for at least 20 years after age 18, OAS payments stop after an absence of more than 6 months beyond the month you leave. With 20 or more years of Canadian residence, OAS continues to be paid to you in Israel indefinitely.
No. The Canada-Israel arrangement is an Interim Agreement that only coordinates contributions for posted workers, and the CRA states it cannot help people qualify for benefits. It is not a standard totalization agreement, so it will not add your Israeli residence to your Canadian residence to reach the 20-year OAS threshold.
Canada applies a 25% non-resident withholding tax to CPP and OAS, which the Canada-Israel tax treaty can reduce. If your net world income exceeds CAD 93,454 (the 2025 figure), the OAS recovery tax also claws back 15% of the excess until OAS is fully recovered, around CAD 151,668 for ages 65 to 74. These are Canadian charges, separate from Israeli tax.
For your first ten years as an oleh, Israel generally exempts foreign-source income including Canadian pensions. From 1 January 2026 the exemption became report-but-still-tax-exempt: the income stays exempt from Israeli tax, but olim arriving in 2026 or later must report it to the Israel Tax Authority. After ten years, the treaty determines the final taxing right and the income becomes part of your Israeli retirement picture.
Yes. You apply to Service Canada from Israel and do not need to be physically in Canada. CPP can be claimed as early as 60 (reduced) or as late as 70 (enhanced), and OAS normally starts at 65 and can be deferred to 70 for a larger amount. Apply a few months before you want payments to begin, declare your non-resident status so the correct withholding and treaty rate apply, and keep records of your Canadian residence years for the 20-year OAS test.
Your CPP is unaffected and keeps paying regardless. For OAS, the only ways to keep it abroad are reaching 20 years of Canadian residence after age 18, or qualifying under a genuine totalization agreement, which the Canada-Israel deal is not. If you are close to 20 years, the timing of your departure may matter, and a qualified cross-border adviser can model it before you commit.
