Italy’s traditional year-end catch-all decree—the “Milleproroghe”—was published on 1 January 2026 and contains several nuggets for global mobility professionals. Article 6 extends the deadline for using CIMEA, the agency that formalises equivalence of non-EU academic qualifications, to 31 December 2028, allocating €1.46 million annually to keep the service running.
The move gives EU Blue-Card applicants and regulated-profession assignees three extra years to complete diploma recognition, easing a bottleneck that last year left 9,000 applications pending. The decree also prolongs payroll-tax holidays for employers converting young or long-term-unemployed staff to permanent contracts and extends special recruitment channels for religion teachers in international schools.
![‘Milleproroghe 2026’ Pushes Foreign-Degree Recognition Deadline to 2028]()
To make practical use of these new timelines, global mobility teams can partner with VisaHQ, whose Italy specialists guide employers and assignees through EU Blue Card filings, CIMEA equivalency steps, and related work-permit workflows. Their self-service portal (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) consolidates document checklists, appointment scheduling and real-time status alerts, ensuring that HR departments capture the decree’s extended windows without administrative overruns.
For HR teams, the twin effect is lower labour costs and a smoother pathway for non-EU engineers, architects and teachers. Companies should audit pending CIMEA cases and reassess localisation timelines in light of extended tax incentives (€650 per employee per month).
Legislative path: The decree must be converted into law within 60 days. Wholesale changes are rare, but mobility managers should track parliamentary debate for fine-tuning of eligibility rules.
The move gives EU Blue-Card applicants and regulated-profession assignees three extra years to complete diploma recognition, easing a bottleneck that last year left 9,000 applications pending. The decree also prolongs payroll-tax holidays for employers converting young or long-term-unemployed staff to permanent contracts and extends special recruitment channels for religion teachers in international schools.
To make practical use of these new timelines, global mobility teams can partner with VisaHQ, whose Italy specialists guide employers and assignees through EU Blue Card filings, CIMEA equivalency steps, and related work-permit workflows. Their self-service portal (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) consolidates document checklists, appointment scheduling and real-time status alerts, ensuring that HR departments capture the decree’s extended windows without administrative overruns.
For HR teams, the twin effect is lower labour costs and a smoother pathway for non-EU engineers, architects and teachers. Companies should audit pending CIMEA cases and reassess localisation timelines in light of extended tax incentives (€650 per employee per month).
Legislative path: The decree must be converted into law within 60 days. Wholesale changes are rare, but mobility managers should track parliamentary debate for fine-tuning of eligibility rules.
