Olim Benefits Timeline — When Each Benefit Starts and Ends

Olim get a stack of time-limited benefits. Knowing when each one expires lets you sequence decisions for maximum value: import a car before customs exemption ends, close on a mortgage while reduced-rate Olim mortgage is available, sit a professional licensing exam while Misrad HaKlita stipend covers prep costs, transfer foreign pensions while still in the exempt window. Miss a deadline and you forfeit thousands of shekels of value.

The interactive timeline visualizes benefit duration vs your residency clock. Some benefits are front-loaded (Sal Klita: months 1–6 only). Some are step-down (tax credit point bonus: 3 in year 1, 2 in year 2, 1 in year 3, then zero). Some are back-end weighted (the 10-year foreign-income exemption ends in year 10, so years 8–10 are the optimal window for major foreign asset realizations). Some are multi-year flat (Olim mortgage benefits available in years 1–7 with no scaling).

Major benefits the Timeline tracks: Sal Klita (months 1–6), tax credit point bonus (years 1–3, 3-2-1 step-down), customs exemption on personal effects (year 1, with a one-time extension to year 3 by application), Olim mortgage benefit (years 1–7), arnona discount (90% in year 1, 50% in years 2–4), foreign-income tax exemption (years 1–10), foreign pension transfer exempt (years 1–10), licensed-profession re-certification stipend (years 1–2), monthly ulpan stipend (during ulpan attendance, capped at year 1).

If you are still pre-Aliyah, this timeline is the strategic context that the Affordability Planner assumes — it explains WHY the runway calculations look the way they do. Once you arrive, pair it with the Aliyah Timeline for milestone planning.