Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 278

II.—The Immigration Ordinance and its Problems. 1. The Immigration Ordinance of the Palestine Government that was issued in August, 1933, embodies all the restrictions of the 1925 Ordinance together with all the various amendments made from time to time since then; it contains practically no change of any value. It lays down the following main categories of immigrants : A(i) Persons in possession of capital of £1,000 or more. A(ii) Members of liberal professions with capital of £500 (under certain conditions). A(iii) Skilled artisans with capital of £250. A(iv) Persons with a minimum income of £4 per month. A(v) Immigrants with capital of £500, on condition they can find an existence in the country. B Rabbis, students, etc. C Manual workers (mainly on certificates issued to the Jewish Agency). D Dependants of Palestine residents (wife, aged parents, fiancées, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters or nephews and nieces below the age of eighteen or dependent on relatives in Palestine). It may be pointed out that there has been considerable improvement in the procedure of granting certificates, especially with regard to immigrants of Category D. The decentralisation that has been effected allows immigration officers at Haifa and Jaffa to approve applications without having to forward them to Jerusalem for ratification. Thanks to this, thousands of Palestine residents in 1934 received immigration certificates for their relatives after very little waiting. The procedure has also been simplified in regard to applications under Category A (persons of means); these are granted or refused with little delay. In recent months immigration certificates have been forwarded to Consuls in Poland and other countries for persons of means who can show that they possess £1,000 capital, without their having to send for approval to Jerusalem. It may be recalled that the Jewish Agency had been requesting this for years. The new procedure was first instituted only for the United States and Germany. The present extension is of great benefit to persons of means who now find at any rate one big obstacle removed. We have, however, to protest against the treatment of applications under certain other categories, treatment which renders almost valueless their inclusion in the Ordinance : (a) In the case of Category A(iii) 500 certificates were indeed distributed among the Consuls in various countries, but this has now ceased and nothing more has been done in spite of the fact that multitudes of artisans and skilled workers in the Gallith could qualify for this category. 278