Some Technical Notes About Making Aliyah - Months 6 - 3
Husband here. We are about three weeks from our aliyah date and things are finally starting to coalesce. Nefesh B'Nefesh has a timeline of how you are supposed to plan your aliyah, but it is pretty bare bones (IMO) so I thought I would help and elaborate on a bunch of the things that have to get done.
Our timeline went something like this:
December 2018 (7 months before Aliyah):
1. Decide to make aliyah. I'd have to read back in some of the archives of this blog to see what my wife had written, but it was pretty much a spur of the moment decision to make aliyah in Summer 2019. A lot of things (some social, some financial) all came together to just make it the right thing to do. Feel free to plan for a longer period of time though. Some people need that.
2. Do some timing. The major question here is whether you are going to go early in the summer or late in the summer. If you're going to be looking for a job, go earlier in the summer, so that you have time to get setup, network, and apply and hopefully be employed before THE CHAGIM. Also coming in the early summer will give your kids some time to acclimate and meet people so that they aren't diving head-first into the deep end when school starts. (At least this is our thinking, I will update once we actually get through the summer).
3. Draw up a preliminary budget. NBN has a few budgets online for different classes of people, but you should make up your own given what resources you anticipate having when you arrive in Israel (e.g. will you be living off savings, the proceeds from the sale of your home, the money you receive from the sal klitah, etc.).
4. Start davening.
January 2019 (6 months prior to aliyah):
1. Arrange for a realtor to sell our home. You will not have time to sell your own home, and if you want top dollar for your home, go with a realtor. Doing this six months in advance will give you time to make repairs, know what the market is like and allow you to time your listing so it is during the height of the spring market.
2. Get all your paperwork in order and fill out your NBN application. This is approximately a 4-6 week process for a family of 5. We needed to renew a passport and get pictures, and get some apostilles. Then scanning and uploading. In retrospect I would invest in a decent scanner, if they even sell them individually anymore. Otherwise make sure you live near an OfficeMax. I found that using their machines for a small price just worked faster and easier than dealing with whatever tech I had at home.
3. Continue davening. Find some friends who are making aliyah and daven for them too.
February 2019 (5 months prior to aliyah):
1. Start looking for housing. Like any move, this is going to be the most stressful part of your aliyah. It will take all of your efforts and resources to find a suitable place.
5. You guessed it. Time to daven.
April 2019 (three months prior to aliyah):
1. Have a baby (this really takes some planning nine months prior), then a bris on the first day of pesach, then also make pesach. Hopefully you only have to do the last thing in that list, but I'm happy we got to do all three.
2. Start signing your lease (if you're successful in your search) documentation. This will take time too. There is a bit of variation in terms of what each landlord requires but it seems to be some combination of signing a lease, making at least a first payment in advance (maybe two) and then some sort of deposit or promissory note. Ask your "advance team" about a lawyer who can read over your lease if it isn't in English (or your native language) or if it is in dense legalese. This will cost a fee.
3. Start to get things solidified in terms of employment. At least have a phone call with people in your field, or the field you want to get into when you arrive. Browse job sites in Israel that list jobs in your field. Search for Israeli companies that do what you do and write to them. NBN has some resources around this.
4. Go daven.
Stay tuned for the last two months of the aliyah checklist. It is getting late here in America and I need to go arrange for insurance and beds for our home early tomorrow morning (a little bit of a preview). Hatzlacha Rabbah!
Our timeline went something like this:
December 2018 (7 months before Aliyah):
1. Decide to make aliyah. I'd have to read back in some of the archives of this blog to see what my wife had written, but it was pretty much a spur of the moment decision to make aliyah in Summer 2019. A lot of things (some social, some financial) all came together to just make it the right thing to do. Feel free to plan for a longer period of time though. Some people need that.
2. Do some timing. The major question here is whether you are going to go early in the summer or late in the summer. If you're going to be looking for a job, go earlier in the summer, so that you have time to get setup, network, and apply and hopefully be employed before THE CHAGIM. Also coming in the early summer will give your kids some time to acclimate and meet people so that they aren't diving head-first into the deep end when school starts. (At least this is our thinking, I will update once we actually get through the summer).
3. Draw up a preliminary budget. NBN has a few budgets online for different classes of people, but you should make up your own given what resources you anticipate having when you arrive in Israel (e.g. will you be living off savings, the proceeds from the sale of your home, the money you receive from the sal klitah, etc.).
4. Start davening.
January 2019 (6 months prior to aliyah):
1. Arrange for a realtor to sell our home. You will not have time to sell your own home, and if you want top dollar for your home, go with a realtor. Doing this six months in advance will give you time to make repairs, know what the market is like and allow you to time your listing so it is during the height of the spring market.
2. Get all your paperwork in order and fill out your NBN application. This is approximately a 4-6 week process for a family of 5. We needed to renew a passport and get pictures, and get some apostilles. Then scanning and uploading. In retrospect I would invest in a decent scanner, if they even sell them individually anymore. Otherwise make sure you live near an OfficeMax. I found that using their machines for a small price just worked faster and easier than dealing with whatever tech I had at home.
3. Continue davening. Find some friends who are making aliyah and daven for them too.
February 2019 (5 months prior to aliyah):
1. Start looking for housing. Like any move, this is going to be the most stressful part of your aliyah. It will take all of your efforts and resources to find a suitable place.
- Make sure you have an idea of what your housing budget is. If you don't have an idea of what that is go back to what I wrote in the December section. Don't forget to factor in arnona (property tax). Knowledge is power.
- Once you know your budget, go find out what the housing costs are in the area you want to live. There are various places to do this, sites like yad2 and other rental sites. Even if the listings are old, you can just factor in a 2-3% increase per year from the time the listing was made. Break it down into cost per square meter so that you can easily make comparisons across properties.
- Can't find anything in your budget? It might not be time to make aliyah. Or you're looking to line in the wrong place. Don't let financial failure ruin your dreams.
- Assuming your good to go on budget and costs, get the word out that you are looking. Find some realtors who specialize in rentals, tell your friends in the area that you are looking for housing in the area, etc. Remember, a lot in Israel (and Jewish stuff in general) it is who you know and when you find it, so be active and be vigilant. Don't put off till tomorrow something you can do today!
2. Reach out to people in the area you are looking to move to. If you don't know anyone there already, talk to your aliyah advisor, they will often know people, or talk to your friends in chutz laaretz and see if they know anyone. Feet on the ground is crucial to a smooth aliyah (again this is all foresight so I'll keep you posted if that turns out to be correct). The people in your neighborhood will be able to answer little questions really well (what bank to use, what kupah to sign up for, do they speak any English in such-and-such a place, is there a minyan factory - I really need a minyan factory!).
3. Ask some questions of yourself:
- What do I NEED in order to make aliyah as smooth as possible for me and my family? (Then start researching how to do those things, and make sure they fit into your budget)
- Does the area I chose have all the things I need to feel comfortable once a I get there (e.g. an Anglo crowd to talk with on Shabbos, public transportation, a Burger's Bar in close proximity, you know the important things)?
- Start getting used to the fact that people will miss you, and you will miss people. This is less of an issue in 2019 than it used to be even compared to 2003-2004 when I spent a year in Yeshiva, but still, you might not get that daily, weekly, monthly dose of that person like you used to.
4. Find other people in your peer group making aliyah. Nefesh BNefesh has a Facebook group that can help you put a group together, you'll get invited to it once you complete your application.
5. Daven some more.
March 2019 (four months prior to Aliyah):
1. Really just a lot of chasing down the things I've written about in the past months. This is when I first made contact with our aliyah concierge. Hopefully by this point you've realized that housing does not come with appliances, so unless you want to start finding out how to find and get and hook up appliances after travelling several thousand miles, I highly suggest looking into a service that can do this for you. Yeah, everything is a different size, quality, etc. I say don't fret, you can't do anything about it and I don't get worked up about things I can't change. Though do ask around exactly how things compare to "American sizes" (America is to Israel what Texas is to the rest of the 49 states, I have learned) just so you can prepare yourself to adapt.
2. Start letting your friends know you're FOR REAL. There is some wiggle room to back out during the first few months after making your decision, but the first of multiple "points-of-no-return" are fast approaching. You're friends will be happy for you and they'll know people where you are going, so those are the people you want to be your feet on the ground. Did you know that the President of the United States has an "Advance Team"? This is what you need to set up for yourself in Israel.
3. Download WhatsApp for yourself. This is how like everyone communicates.
4. Find someway to get some money over to Israel so that you can make a first rent payment. In fact, if you make a pilot trip (which we didn't) I would bring cash for a first month deposit with you and leave it with a trusted friend so that they can make the first payment for you. It will cut down on some stress. There are other ways to get this done, but now that I am thinking about it, this would be a pretty straightforward solution.
5. You guessed it. Time to daven.
April 2019 (three months prior to aliyah):
1. Have a baby (this really takes some planning nine months prior), then a bris on the first day of pesach, then also make pesach. Hopefully you only have to do the last thing in that list, but I'm happy we got to do all three.
2. Start signing your lease (if you're successful in your search) documentation. This will take time too. There is a bit of variation in terms of what each landlord requires but it seems to be some combination of signing a lease, making at least a first payment in advance (maybe two) and then some sort of deposit or promissory note. Ask your "advance team" about a lawyer who can read over your lease if it isn't in English (or your native language) or if it is in dense legalese. This will cost a fee.
3. Start to get things solidified in terms of employment. At least have a phone call with people in your field, or the field you want to get into when you arrive. Browse job sites in Israel that list jobs in your field. Search for Israeli companies that do what you do and write to them. NBN has some resources around this.
4. Go daven.
Stay tuned for the last two months of the aliyah checklist. It is getting late here in America and I need to go arrange for insurance and beds for our home early tomorrow morning (a little bit of a preview). Hatzlacha Rabbah!
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