Approximately 60,000 asylum seekers are currently living in Israel, about half of them from Sudan and Eritrea. Based on our work with HIAS social workers and the research we conducted, we identified three main barriers:

• Language barrier: Most government forms and digital interfaces are available only in Hebrew, a language many refugees cannot read.
  
  
• Bureaucratic complexity: The need to renew visas, register children, and obtain medical rights involves complicated forms that even many Israelis struggle to understand.
  
  
• Fear and lack of trust: Concern about direct interaction with state authorities causes many people to avoid exercising their rights.

One of the biggest challenges was entering the initial information. Instead of asking the refugee to fill out an endless form alone, we created a smart hybrid process:

• Guided intake: The process takes place during the first meeting with a HIAS social worker, who helps complete the information together with the user.
  
  
• Smart OCR: Instead of typing data manually, the system scans the passport or visa and automatically extracts details such as name, ID number, date of birth, and visa validity.
  
  
• One-time entry: All information (children, address, legal status, etc.) is stored in a secure database. From that point on, every future form in the app automatically pulls this data (auto-fill), so the user never needs to enter it again.