Italy’s Chamber of Deputies gave final approval on 27 November to a wide-ranging Simplification and Digitalisation Law that contains a headline change for corporate immigration teams: the time limit for issuing a work authorisation (nulla osta) for two key talent pipelines is cut from 60–90 days to just 30 days.
The first pipeline concerns non-EU nationals who have completed an official Italian professional and civic-language training course overseas. Employers can now lodge a nominative request and receive the nulla osta within a month, and graduates will have up to 12 months—triple the previous window—to apply for their entry visa.
![Parliament halves processing time for Blue-Card and foreign-trained worker permits]()
The second pipeline is the EU Blue Card scheme for highly-qualified workers (Art. 27-quater of the Immigration Act). The same 30-day statutory limit now applies, aligning Italy with the faster processing standards introduced by the revised EU Blue Card Directive.
The law also modernises housing-adequacy rules: if the worker is lodged in a purpose-built site dormitory the employer may self-certify compliance, and hotel or other hospitality structures can simply be named in the application. Additional e-government measures are designed to push more of the process online, reducing in-person visits to police headquarters and immigration desks.
For multinationals, the shorter timelines should make Italian assignments more predictable in 2026, when the first quotas of the new three-year Flussi programme open. Companies that rely on STEM talent—and workers graduating from Italy-funded training centres abroad—will be able to deploy staff in half the previous time, improving project planning and cost control.
The first pipeline concerns non-EU nationals who have completed an official Italian professional and civic-language training course overseas. Employers can now lodge a nominative request and receive the nulla osta within a month, and graduates will have up to 12 months—triple the previous window—to apply for their entry visa.
The second pipeline is the EU Blue Card scheme for highly-qualified workers (Art. 27-quater of the Immigration Act). The same 30-day statutory limit now applies, aligning Italy with the faster processing standards introduced by the revised EU Blue Card Directive.
The law also modernises housing-adequacy rules: if the worker is lodged in a purpose-built site dormitory the employer may self-certify compliance, and hotel or other hospitality structures can simply be named in the application. Additional e-government measures are designed to push more of the process online, reducing in-person visits to police headquarters and immigration desks.
For multinationals, the shorter timelines should make Italian assignments more predictable in 2026, when the first quotas of the new three-year Flussi programme open. Companies that rely on STEM talent—and workers graduating from Italy-funded training centres abroad—will be able to deploy staff in half the previous time, improving project planning and cost control.
