Work within the quotas
Employment and self-employment in Italy are open to a citizen of a third country only within the quotas which the Government fixes by decree, except for the categories which article 27 admits at any time of the year. The decree for the three years from 2026 to 2028 was adopted on 2 October 2025 and published on 15 October, and it sets the numbers, the sectors and the days on which the employers apply.
The decree for 2026 to 2028
The decree admits 497,550 workers over the three years: 164,850 in 2026, 165,850 in 2027 and 166,850 in 2028. In each year 76,200 places are for non-seasonal employment and 650 for self-employment, and the seasonal places rise from 88,000 in 2026 to 90,000 in 2028, with the sectors of agriculture and tourism and a contingent for domestic and care work of 13,600 places in 2026. Three hundred and twenty places a year are reserved to refugees and stateless persons, and fifty of the self-employment places to workers of Italian origin, ten of them resident in Venezuela.
The click days and the application
The employer in Italy, not the worker, applies for the authorisation, the nulla osta, to the Sportello Unico per l’Immigrazione of the Prefecture, on the portal of the Ministry of the Interior, after a period of pre-compilation which the Ministry opens in the weeks before. The applications are sent on fixed days, the click days, and are examined in the order of arrival until the quota is exhausted: in 2026 the days were 12 January for seasonal work in agriculture, 9 February for seasonal work in tourism, 16 February for non-seasonal employment and 18 February for domestic and care work, and the decree fixes the same days of February for 2027 and 2028. The employer must show an income or a turnover of at least thirty thousand euro, must have verified with the employment centre that no worker available in Italy fills the post, a check deemed negative after eight days, and, outside the applications made through the employers’ associations, must have the application certified by a professional. The decree-law of October 2025 limits each employer to three applications for each decree and fixes the term of the nulla osta at sixty days for employment and twenty for seasonal work, with silence counting as a grant.
The visa and the permit
With the nulla osta the worker applies for the visa at the Italian consulate of the country of residence, within the validity of the authorisation, and within eight working days of the entry signs the contract of stay at the Sportello Unico and requests the permit for employment, which lasts as long as the contract and at most two years, renewable. The seasonal permit lasts the season, at most nine months, and a seasonal worker who returns in later years has a right of priority. The self-employed worker obtains the visa on the proof of the resources, of the registration required for the activity and of the accommodation. A British citizen hired by an Italian employer follows the same procedure, and the queue of the click day with it, unless the post falls under article 27.
A hotel in the Dolomites wishes to hire a British chef for the summer of 2027. The owner pre-compiles the application in the window of the Ministry and sends it at nine in the morning of 9 February 2027, the click day for seasonal tourism. The nulla osta arrives within twenty days, the chef obtains the visa in London and signs the contract of stay at the Prefecture of Bolzano within eight working days of the entry. Had the hotel wanted him as a manager under a permanent contract, article 27 would have allowed the application on any day of the year.
If an Italian employer wishes to hire you, or you wish to work in Italy on your own account, send us the offer or the project and your qualifications. We tell you whether the post falls within the quotas or outside them, and we prepare the documents of the worker for the Sportello Unico and the consulate.