True to tradition, Italy’s year-end ‘Milleproroghe’ (literally “thousand extensions”) decree landed in the Official Gazette on 1 January and is packed with clauses relevant to talent mobility. Chief among them, Article 6 postpones the hard deadline for using CIMEA, Italy’s academic-qualification recognition body, to 31 December 2028 and allocates €1.46 million annually to keep the service running. The extra three years give expatriates and HR teams more time to secure equivalence certificates needed for practising regulated professions or applying for EU Blue Cards.
The decree also extends special recruitment channels for teachers of religion, prolongs technical-inspector hiring windows at the education ministry and, outside the education sphere, freezes the inflation adjustment of traffic fines until the end of 2026. From a mobility perspective, the standout measure is another year of payroll-tax holidays — worth up to €650 per month — for employers who convert temporary staff to permanent contracts or hire under-35s and long-term unemployed women.
![‘Milleproroghe 2026’ Pushes Back Foreign-Degree Recognition and Extends Hiring Subsidies]()
For organisations that need hands-on assistance turning these policy changes into action, VisaHQ provides a streamlined, tech-driven service for obtaining Italian visas, nulla osta clearances and EU Blue Cards. The platform’s experts monitor decree amendments in real time, help assemble CIMEA-compatible documentation and schedule consular appointments, reducing administrative lead times for both HR teams and assignees. More information is available at https://www.visahq.com/italy/
Because the decree must be converted into law by Parliament within 60 days, mobility managers should monitor amendments, although wholesale rewrites are rare. In most years, ‘Milleproroghe’ provisions survive intact, meaning companies can already factor the new deadlines and incentives into 2026–27 localisation and hiring plans.
Practically, assignees waiting on degree recognition should accelerate applications before CIMEA’s backlog grows, while employers pondering localisation now have extended tax relief to sweeten the switch from expatriate status to local contracts. Immigration advisers note that Blue-Card applicants still need the usual work authorisation (nulla osta) and that the decree does not modify quota allocations, so planning ahead for click-day remains essential.
The decree also extends special recruitment channels for teachers of religion, prolongs technical-inspector hiring windows at the education ministry and, outside the education sphere, freezes the inflation adjustment of traffic fines until the end of 2026. From a mobility perspective, the standout measure is another year of payroll-tax holidays — worth up to €650 per month — for employers who convert temporary staff to permanent contracts or hire under-35s and long-term unemployed women.
For organisations that need hands-on assistance turning these policy changes into action, VisaHQ provides a streamlined, tech-driven service for obtaining Italian visas, nulla osta clearances and EU Blue Cards. The platform’s experts monitor decree amendments in real time, help assemble CIMEA-compatible documentation and schedule consular appointments, reducing administrative lead times for both HR teams and assignees. More information is available at https://www.visahq.com/italy/
Because the decree must be converted into law by Parliament within 60 days, mobility managers should monitor amendments, although wholesale rewrites are rare. In most years, ‘Milleproroghe’ provisions survive intact, meaning companies can already factor the new deadlines and incentives into 2026–27 localisation and hiring plans.
Practically, assignees waiting on degree recognition should accelerate applications before CIMEA’s backlog grows, while employers pondering localisation now have extended tax relief to sweeten the switch from expatriate status to local contracts. Immigration advisers note that Blue-Card applicants still need the usual work authorisation (nulla osta) and that the decree does not modify quota allocations, so planning ahead for click-day remains essential.
