MILAN – Italy’s first 2026 ‘click-day’ for hiring non-EU domestic carers and babysitters opened at 09:00 on 18 February and, by 20 February, had already logged more than 49,000 pre-filled applications for just 13,600 available places. The home-care quota – a sub-window of the Flow Decree – is aimed at easing chronic shortages in Italy’s ageing-care sector, but the early numbers confirm intense demand and reignite criticism of the “fastest-finger” allocation model. According to employer associations, many family sponsors hired immigration consultants to upload requests seconds after the portal opened, creating technical slow-downs and locking out less tech-savvy applicants. Labour-rights NGOs say the lottery format fuels a grey market in ‘placeholder’ applications that are later resold to desperate families and workers.
![‘Click-Day’ for Carers Overruns: 49,000 Requests Chase 13,600 Home-Care Visas]()
Whether you’re a family scrambling for a caregiver slot or a mobility manager coordinating multiple assignees, VisaHQ can simplify the paperwork. The service provides step-by-step guidance, document checklists and online filing support for Italian work, family-reunion and Schengen visas—visit https://www.visahq.com/italy/ to see how it can cut weeks off the process.
The Interior Ministry insists the ALI portal performed to specification and notes that digital time-stamping ensures fairness. For businesses in corporate relocation, the oversubscription signals continuing visa pressure on accompanying dependants: many executives rely on live-in carers to support elderly parents while on assignment. Mobility managers should advise assignees to budget for private agencies or short-term Schengen visas if the quota is exhausted. Unions are renewing calls to scrap click-days in favour of continuous intake aligned with verified labour needs – a reform the government has promised to study for 2027. In the meantime, unsuccessful sponsors must wait for a potential autumn re-opening or pivot to the much smaller ‘conversion’ quotas earmarked for workers already in Italy on other permits.
Whether you’re a family scrambling for a caregiver slot or a mobility manager coordinating multiple assignees, VisaHQ can simplify the paperwork. The service provides step-by-step guidance, document checklists and online filing support for Italian work, family-reunion and Schengen visas—visit https://www.visahq.com/italy/ to see how it can cut weeks off the process.
The Interior Ministry insists the ALI portal performed to specification and notes that digital time-stamping ensures fairness. For businesses in corporate relocation, the oversubscription signals continuing visa pressure on accompanying dependants: many executives rely on live-in carers to support elderly parents while on assignment. Mobility managers should advise assignees to budget for private agencies or short-term Schengen visas if the quota is exhausted. Unions are renewing calls to scrap click-days in favour of continuous intake aligned with verified labour needs – a reform the government has promised to study for 2027. In the meantime, unsuccessful sponsors must wait for a potential autumn re-opening or pivot to the much smaller ‘conversion’ quotas earmarked for workers already in Italy on other permits.
