Travellers in North Africa will also feel the impact of Italy’s forthcoming Visa Information System upgrade. The Embassy of Italy in Tunis announced on 5 February that its visa section and outsourced partner Almaviva will suspend the intake and issuance of all visa categories from 18:00 on 12 February until 00:00 on 18 February 2026. The six-day window matches the schedule communicated by the foreign ministry in Rome and other embassies worldwide.
Tunisia is a major source of work-permit holders in Italy’s agricultural and maritime sectors; more than 18,000 Tunisians benefited from seasonal and non-seasonal quotas in 2025. Recruitment agencies now have less than a week to lodge time-sensitive applications or risk missing spring planting and ship-crew rotations.
During the blackout, VisaHQ can act as a buffer for both employers and individual travellers. Its Italy-focused team (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) tracks embassy alerts in real time, pre-screens documentation for compliance, and queues files so they are ready for immediate submission the moment the VIS portal is restored—helping clients shave days off post-freeze processing.
![Italian Embassy in Tunis joins global VIS-IT shutdown, pauses visa processing]()
The embassy said existing appointments will be re-allocated "as close as possible" to the original dates and pledged to prioritise medical, family-reunion and crew change cases once systems come back online. Nevertheless, service providers expect a backlog of at least 1,500 files, potentially stretching processing times into early March.
HR departments should update assignment timelines and consider digital onboarding to mitigate late arrivals. Employers sponsoring Tunisians for Italy’s new Seasonal Multi-Year permit may also want to pre-collect documentation—such as police certificates and work contracts—so dossiers can be lodged immediately after the freeze.
The Tunis notice reinforces that the VIS-IT outage is global and unavoidable; companies with critical mobility flows are advised to map alternative Schengen consulates or adjust travel dates accordingly.
Tunisia is a major source of work-permit holders in Italy’s agricultural and maritime sectors; more than 18,000 Tunisians benefited from seasonal and non-seasonal quotas in 2025. Recruitment agencies now have less than a week to lodge time-sensitive applications or risk missing spring planting and ship-crew rotations.
During the blackout, VisaHQ can act as a buffer for both employers and individual travellers. Its Italy-focused team (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) tracks embassy alerts in real time, pre-screens documentation for compliance, and queues files so they are ready for immediate submission the moment the VIS portal is restored—helping clients shave days off post-freeze processing.
The embassy said existing appointments will be re-allocated "as close as possible" to the original dates and pledged to prioritise medical, family-reunion and crew change cases once systems come back online. Nevertheless, service providers expect a backlog of at least 1,500 files, potentially stretching processing times into early March.
HR departments should update assignment timelines and consider digital onboarding to mitigate late arrivals. Employers sponsoring Tunisians for Italy’s new Seasonal Multi-Year permit may also want to pre-collect documentation—such as police certificates and work contracts—so dossiers can be lodged immediately after the freeze.
The Tunis notice reinforces that the VIS-IT outage is global and unavoidable; companies with critical mobility flows are advised to map alternative Schengen consulates or adjust travel dates accordingly.
