Name: TarcisioePotira Freitas
Rating: 5

TarcisioePotira Freitas

I really recommend the law office's services. The service is very professional and efficient, the price is right. I am satisfied with the services I needed and happy to have known them.

Eden Weiss

Extrmely friendly, professional and helpful. A big thank you to Irina especially from the Jerusalem office. Highly Recommended.

Paul Prince

The team of lawyers and assistants are incredibly professional. Aiming to give their clients the advice possible regarding the normative and the law of Israel. With well trained and professional secretary at the front desk to the lawyers team, I could say that I had one of the most professional services possible. I'm super glad of choosing Joshua Pex of Law office for immigration solution, lawyers to advise in my case, to me, it is remarkable.

Alexander P Gutterman

EU PASSPORT ! Big news! Thanks to Michael Decker and the other good people at the law office, as well as to the virtue of my ancestors, the cruelty of the Inquisition, reparations issued in the Iberian Peninsula, and etc, I am delighted to be on track for Portuguese and European Union Citizenship! A truly incredible development and one which brings me deep joy.

Halvor Ronning

Courteous, clear, efficient service.

Arielle Bosch

Incredibly knowledgeable, approachable, accessible, and evident across the board that they truly care about the people they are helping. They are quick to respond, engaged, and obviously top-notch lawyers. I couldn't recommend them highly enough. Thank you, Joshua and Itamar for your help with our Joint Life Application. You were a calming energy during a storm - always breathed a sigh of relief after speaking with you. It is so difficult to get straight answers from the Misrad Hapnim, but you guys are straight shooters. I appreciate your candor and evident integrity. Hope to work with you in the future, and will send everyone I know in need of legal aid your way. Thank you for your guidance and support.

Michelle Long

Josh has been helping me on and off for a few years now. I have needed legal advice and assistance with immigration due to a complex situation of mine, and he has been extremely available and responsive, honest and clear about my route and how to proceed. Very much recommended!

Schruuf

We were very pleased and content with the services of this law firm. They supported us 100% and solved our case successfully, we couldn't be happier.

Amir Abt

The best lawyer firm I’ve had dealt with. I would like to thank Anat Levi and Ariel Galili from the Jerusalem branch for all of their efforts and patience, we could not have been Able to reach to where we are now without them

Jacob Newberry

A really excellent firm. They knew exactly how to handle my situation effectively and efficiently, and we got the result I needed without much fuss. Adi Berger was a wonderful advocate for me and I am deeply grateful for her help!

Lilian Granovsky

I can highly recommend these services!
Every time we turned to Joshua we always got a professional quick and helpful respond.

Prima Lorenzo

I admire the Austrian citizenship team in Tel-Aviv branch! They deserve more then 5 stars!! They are very friendly and professional. I've got Austrian citizenship in 4 months for all family members which consists of 12 people! The entire team is very friendly and responsive. They are always answering questions and support during the process. I recommend to everyone. Was 100% satisfied.

Israel iluz

We were very satisfied with the service of Nehama. She was very professional in all her dealings and kept us informed all the way.
We highly recommend this law firm. They proved to be reliable, efficient and pleasant to work with.

Kfir Cohen

We were searching for a law firm that will be honest with us and really work hard for a satisfying result, it wasn't an easy task
We found them online; they were the only law firm from all of our searchings which were completely honest and NOT gave us just what we wanted to hear
Using them guaranteed honesty above all. A legal team that is friendly and cares for a superb result
They really care about helping their customers without any other interest
Nadia gave us service behind what we expected; she was professional which lead to fast and easy process with great result
We definitely recommend using them

Dumitrascu Cristina

Best lawyer house from Israel! I couldn’t dealt with my situation without their professionalism and effectiveness. Their dedication to every legal aspect and their drive it’s how a true lawyer house can be!
Working in European market and international now, I couldn’t dare to let myself wide my wings on countries unknown to me. Definitely they’ll be the lawyers representing me, my business at every international aspect and on personal development.
When you hear Decker,Pex,Ofir &Co, you hear 10+ class services, luxurious professionals, confidentiality and exclusive attention to your needs.

YK C

We had a pleasure of working with Irena Rosenberg who assisted in getting our two U.S. born children registered in Israel and supported visa process for my wife in 2021. During the pandemic, my wife and I decided to move to Israel where I am originally from after living in the U.S. for over 20 years, but we had no idea how to go about securing visas before and after arriving in Israel. Irena is knowledgeable, reliable and competent lawyer who always had answers to all our questions which made us feel confident that everything would be fine with her assistance. We are now happily living in Israel and are so grateful to have Irena who is a genuinely nice person as our lawyer.

Priscilla Moses

competent consulting, fast processing, reliable, warm & good team. highly recommended

Andreas Kelling

We have been working with Decker, Pex Ofir & Co - Law Firm in Tel Aviv for many years very well. Because we appreciated their lawyers services, we recommended businesses and individuals again and again to go there as well.

Morgan Jones

The team at Decker, Pex, Ofir & Co have been awesome to work with in helping our US company establish banking in Israel and in providing counsel for legal needs in Israel. I highly recommend!

Joshua Pex was both an amazing human being and an inspiring human rights attorney. I reported directly to him for various activities I performed as in intern. I was impressed with his incredibly solid character. He is trustworthy, fair, and goes above and beyond to advocate for the vulnerable. He is completely trustworthy and high caliber in his work. His partners and employees are very blessed to work with him. I am honored to know them.

Heather Lebrun

Marce Ruth St. Rey

Party time in the heart, my beloved husband received his residence after so much time of battles and faith. Gratitude, God has blessed us with wonderful beings who have accompanied us, including a "precious angel" who touched our hearts, our excellent and fantastic lawyer: Maria Chernin Dekel, sweet and wonderful human being, who has guided us and stayed On our side. side in this intense legal transit whom we bless on every occasion. God bless you dear Maria, you have exceeded your professional duty by containing us and collaborating with us in hard times, very hard, for that we want to thank you publicly, you are unique!!!

We bless and thank the entire team at Decker Pex Tal Ofir Law Firm.

Matthias Oppliger

I have been receiving services from this Law Firm for several years now and I want to say THANK YOU to the team, especially Joshua Pex. They are doing outstanding work. The services I have received for both our Israeli non profit association but also our social business have helped us solve many issues at hand and provided solutions in complicated situations. Personally, I am grateful for support in visa issues as a foreigner living now in Israel for many years.

Yossi Montrose

Very knowledgeable and professional

Dongdiet & Nellie

We are very happy with the services. Somehow they managed to translate the law lingo into language we actually understand 😉 and their outstanding YouTube videos helped us to have a better grasp of what process we had to go through. Their patience, clear explanation and experience are very valuable. It's also very nice to know that you will receive response promptly; it made us feel we can really trust their services. We recommend all those looking for immigration lawyers to get in touch.

Stuart Safft

I am delighted to report that my wife and I have just obtained our Israeli citizenship. We will be forever grateful for all of the help, guidance and support which Ariel Galili of Decker, Pex, Ofir & Co. provided through this process.

I am a Jewish, 80-year-old American, and my wife is not Jewish. We had started the process on our own back in November 2020 via the Jewish Agency and Nefesh B’Nefesh, but soon became entangled in the delays and often-changing regulations due to Covid-19. The pandemic also caused delays in obtaining the required apostilles for various documents from various state agencies and the US State Department.

We found Decker, Pex, Ofir & Co. On the internet and began working with Ariel in late November 2021. Ariel did a superb job of leading us through the process, helping us to understand which documents were essential, which would most likely be required, and which, though included on the list of required documents, were rarely required. He helped us several times to understand what was likely and unlikely to occur as “the next step.” Helping us manage our expectations was extremely useful to us.

Besides his knowing the laws, regulations and procedures, Ariel also made us feel that he was truly interested in helping us to successfully work through this process in as smooth, timely, and frustration-free manner as possible.

My wife and I strongly recommend anyone planning to go through this process seriously consider hiring Decker, Pex, Ofir & Co. and, specifically, Ariel Galili.

Shaltiel Devorah

Mr. Joshua Pex is knowledgeable and Professional. I really appreciate his courteous and direct approach.

Sophie Cooperman

Oded Ger did an excellent job by reviewing a modeling contract I was offered. Explained the bad clauses in the contract, and their possible consequences. Thank you for your amazing job, your professionalism, your consultation and honesty. You showed me from your experience how it can be done differently. It was the best decision choosing you as my lawyer.

I highly recommend this firm, especially Oded Ger.

Michael and Ariellah Waizman

For Advocate Joshua Pex.

We were in a devastating situation when my wife received an order from the immigration office to leave Israel within 30 days, without any explanation, after we have been married and in the process for six and a half years. We heard of Advocate Pex through a friend of a friend. We contacted Mr. Pex and he was ready to help us when he heard of our situation.

The service is amazing! Always ready to assist without regard to the time it takes. The advice Mr. Pex gave us was great, such as what to do, he gave useful links, and advice about which officials to contact. The price for the service was great!

The process until we received the extension for another year for my wife was not long (3 months). Things started moving once Mr. Pex came into the picture.

We highly recommend Advocate Joshua Pex! We achieved our goal and the fear of deportation has been lifted!

lynn vonne

Excellent service, very friendly and helpful, fast responding and very patient. Highly recommend. I will choose them again next time if needed.

Gáspár Erőss

If you need to solve any complicated legal issue in Israel, don't hesitate to contact them. Otherwise you will loose hours/days/weeks with things that they can solve in minutes. They helped me to obtain my expert working visa in Israel and even after that they responded further questions and gave me advices related to administrative issues in Israel which saved me a lot of time. Irena Rosenberg and Michael Decker worked on my case, they are very professional and helpful. They will not let you down, feel free to contact them.

Greg Olson

We highly recommend Adv. Mike Decker and have know him for many years. He has helped our family with many battles over the years. We recently received our permanent residency after 23 years in Israel. We so much appreciate Mike’s representation of us.

Many couples with one Israeli and one Filippino spouse wish to live together in Israel. This is partly because of the economic and trade ties between Israel and the Philippines, as well as the many Philippine nursing caretakers residing in Israel. In this article, attorney Joshua Pex, a specialist on immigration to Israel from our office, explains the unique aspects of filing a joint-life application and arranging legal status for Filippino spouses.

Our law offices in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, specialize in the area of Israeli immigration law. Our office has extensive experience in arranging legal status for foreign spouses, including those from the Philippines, and representing them before administrative and judicial courts.

Reasons for the many relationships between Israelis and Philippina/os.

A significant portion of the legal status for foreign spouses applications submitted in Israel come from couples in which one spouse is from the Phillipines. One possible reason is that residents of the Philippines do not need a visa to visit Israel; in contrast to their neighboring countries in East Asia, such as Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. This reflects, in part, the warm relations between Israel and the Philippines. The two countries cooperate in a variety of areas, including economy and trade.

But probable main reason for the large number of couples in which the man is Israeli and the woman from the Philippines, is the large number of nursing caretakers from the Philippines residing in Israel. There are over 30,000 such caretakers, mostly foreign workers, who take care of the elderly and the disabled. Foreign nursing caretakers can reside in Israel for many years. In many cases the work is carried out in the family’s home. During this time, it is natural that friendships and even romantic relationships are formed. This situation frequently develops despite Interior Ministry policy which tries to prevent such relationships for foreign nursing caretakers.

How can a spouse from the Philippines obtain legal status in Israel?

Arranging legal status for a spouse from the Philippines is generally done in the same way as for a foreign spouse from any other country. In this matter, there are differences between arranging status for married couples and common-law couples. In both cases, the first stage is for the foreign spouse to file a joint-life application with the Interior Ministry.

The foreign spouse must appear in person if present in Israel; present various documents (for detailed information, see this article); and answer questions regarding personal background. After that, the couple goes through an interview to clarify the sincerity of their relationship. If they meet the conditions set out by the Population and Immigration Authority regulations regarding married couples and common-law couples, they can move on to the gradual process, and gradually establish permanent residence in Israel.

Legal difficulty of divorcing in the Philippines

A common difficulty with arranging legal status for a spouse from the Philippines concerns previous marriage. The Philippines is a strictly Catholic country. Philippine law, influenced by religious concerns, does not permit divorce. In this situation, a couple seeking to arrange legal status in Israel has two options.

First, living as a common-law couple; The foreign spouse can obtain legal status in Israel under the regulation applying to common-law couples. The regulation requires proof that the woman did everything in her power to dissolve her previous marriage. In certain cases, the woman can ask a Philippine court to declare her and her husband to be separated. This declaration does not nullify her status as married, but it can help her obtain legal status in Israel. The couple must understand that in this situation, they cannot get married; rather, they are registered as a common-law couple, and accordingly the woman cannot acquire Israeli citizenship on the basis of marriage.

Second, annulment of the marriage; There is a process by which one can request a declaration of annulment of the marriage after the fact in the Philippines. The application must be submitted to the Philippines court. If it is approved, the woman’s status is changed to single, and the marriage in the Philippines will be considered as if it never happened. This can enable the couple to get married and arrange their legal status in Israel under the regulation for married couples. The annulment process requires representation by an attorney in the Philippines, something that our office can help with, by accompanying the process from Israel.

Contact an attorney specializing in immigration

For any legal question or assistance in arranging legal status in Israel and filing a joint-life application for a Philippine spouse, you can contact our office and we will be happy to help. Our law offices specialize in immigration to Israel and arranging legal status for foreign spouses, with proven professional experience in assisting many couples.