Employers sponsoring highly-skilled foreigners for Italy’s EU Blue Card should brace for longer lead times after the Interior Ministry overhauled its application portal in December 2025. According to immigration firm Fragomen, the system now forces companies to log in with the legal representative’s digital ID, triggers an automatic pull of corporate financials and, crucially, requires detailed cadastral information for the assignee’s initial accommodation.
While the tweaks aim to curb fraud, they add at least three procedural steps and can stall a file for up to a week if public land registries are slow to respond. Fragomen says total processing is now 3–4 weeks longer, disrupting start dates for engineers and managers due to relocate in Q1 2026.
VisaHQ’s Italy desk can help companies navigate these new hurdles; through its platform (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) the team pre-validates cadastral data, secures digital signatures for legal representatives and liaises with local prefectures, often shaving critical days off the EU Blue Card timeline.
![New Online Checks Add 3-4 Weeks to Italy’s EU Blue Card Processing]()
Global HR teams should adjust Gantt charts accordingly: lease negotiations need to happen earlier, and payroll registration may have to shift to the second month of assignment. Companies without an Italian digital signature (“firma digitale”) for their director will also need time to obtain one.
The change underscores a broader European trend of front-loading security and tax checks into digital portals. Italy is the first major EU country to demand property IDs at filing stage; observers expect Germany and Spain to study the model.
Failed uploads can reset the queue, so mobility managers are advised to screenshot every submission and use the new ‘domanda di verifica’ function to flag technical glitches within 48 hours.
While the tweaks aim to curb fraud, they add at least three procedural steps and can stall a file for up to a week if public land registries are slow to respond. Fragomen says total processing is now 3–4 weeks longer, disrupting start dates for engineers and managers due to relocate in Q1 2026.
VisaHQ’s Italy desk can help companies navigate these new hurdles; through its platform (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) the team pre-validates cadastral data, secures digital signatures for legal representatives and liaises with local prefectures, often shaving critical days off the EU Blue Card timeline.
Global HR teams should adjust Gantt charts accordingly: lease negotiations need to happen earlier, and payroll registration may have to shift to the second month of assignment. Companies without an Italian digital signature (“firma digitale”) for their director will also need time to obtain one.
The change underscores a broader European trend of front-loading security and tax checks into digital portals. Italy is the first major EU country to demand property IDs at filing stage; observers expect Germany and Spain to study the model.
Failed uploads can reset the queue, so mobility managers are advised to screenshot every submission and use the new ‘domanda di verifica’ function to flag technical glitches within 48 hours.
