Italian embassies and consulates on four continents issued coordinated alerts on 3–4 February confirming that the national Visa Information System (VIS-IT) will be taken offline from the evening of 12 February until the early hours of 18 February. Notices published by the embassies in Addis Ababa, Washington DC, Muscat, Santiago and Adelaide state that no new applications can be accepted, biometrics cannot be captured and passports already lodged cannot be issued while the upgrade is under way.
VIS-IT is the back-bone database that stores biometric and biographic data for both Schengen Type-C and Italian national Type-D visas. According to the Farnesina’s IT directorate the intervention will migrate the 15-year-old platform to a new cloud architecture and align it with the Entry/Exit System (EES) that the EU will roll out at external borders later this year. Consulates say the work is “urgent and non-deferrable” because multiple regional servers have reached end-of-support.
In the meantime, travellers and corporate mobility teams can tap VisaHQ’s expertise to mitigate disruption: the firm’s Italy desk (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) tracks appointment slots across dozens of Schengen missions, pre-screens paperwork and arranges fast courier return of passports, providing a single point of contact while VIS-IT remains offline.
![Italian visa processing worldwide to pause 12–18 February for VIS-IT system upgrade]()
For mobility managers the impact is comparable to a seasonal shutdown: applicants who hoped to travel around Milan Fashion Week (18–24 Feb) or to pre-position staff for the Winter Olympics test events must now file before 9 February or wait until processing restarts. VFS Global and BLS Italy centres have been told to stop collecting files and biometrics; only additional documents for files already in process will be accepted.
Practical steps recommended by immigration counsel include: bringing forward appointments, shifting urgent travellers to another Schengen consulate that will issue a C-visa in time, and verifying that commercial invitation letters remain valid if an applicant’s travel dates slide. Employers should also watch Italian ‘click-days’ for work permits on 16 and 18 February—the VIS outage may slow the issuance of the accompanying entry visas, delaying mobilisation dates.
When the system comes back online the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects a surge in demand; preparatory filing of application data in Prenot@Mi is therefore advised so that files can be transmitted the moment the green light is given. Consulates have pledged overtime shifts to clear backlogs, but applicants should still budget at least 10 additional calendar days for passport return in late February.
VIS-IT is the back-bone database that stores biometric and biographic data for both Schengen Type-C and Italian national Type-D visas. According to the Farnesina’s IT directorate the intervention will migrate the 15-year-old platform to a new cloud architecture and align it with the Entry/Exit System (EES) that the EU will roll out at external borders later this year. Consulates say the work is “urgent and non-deferrable” because multiple regional servers have reached end-of-support.
In the meantime, travellers and corporate mobility teams can tap VisaHQ’s expertise to mitigate disruption: the firm’s Italy desk (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) tracks appointment slots across dozens of Schengen missions, pre-screens paperwork and arranges fast courier return of passports, providing a single point of contact while VIS-IT remains offline.
For mobility managers the impact is comparable to a seasonal shutdown: applicants who hoped to travel around Milan Fashion Week (18–24 Feb) or to pre-position staff for the Winter Olympics test events must now file before 9 February or wait until processing restarts. VFS Global and BLS Italy centres have been told to stop collecting files and biometrics; only additional documents for files already in process will be accepted.
Practical steps recommended by immigration counsel include: bringing forward appointments, shifting urgent travellers to another Schengen consulate that will issue a C-visa in time, and verifying that commercial invitation letters remain valid if an applicant’s travel dates slide. Employers should also watch Italian ‘click-days’ for work permits on 16 and 18 February—the VIS outage may slow the issuance of the accompanying entry visas, delaying mobilisation dates.
When the system comes back online the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects a surge in demand; preparatory filing of application data in Prenot@Mi is therefore advised so that files can be transmitted the moment the green light is given. Consulates have pledged overtime shifts to clear backlogs, but applicants should still budget at least 10 additional calendar days for passport return in late February.
