The chronic bottlenecks of Italy’s decreto flussi programme were laid bare in Bergamo on 25 February, when provincial data revealed that just 23 residence permits had been granted out of 3,196 applications submitted during the 2025 click-days—a conversion rate of 0.7 %. Unions and employer groups told Corriere Bergamo that the figures confirm “systemic dysfunction” in a mechanism intended to match foreign workers with local labour shortages.
![Decreto Flussi under fire: only 23 residence permits issued from 3,196 applications in Bergamo]()
For employers and applicants trying to steer through Italy’s complex visa grid, platforms such as VisaHQ can provide practical relief: via its Italy page (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) the company offers end-to-end assistance with appointment scheduling, document preparation and progress monitoring, helping both sponsors and candidates avoid the administrative pitfalls spotlighted by the Bergamo data.
The province had already seen demand collapse: applications fell 62 % from 8,381 in 2024 after many employers lost faith that paperwork would translate into actual hires. Even when nulla osta work authorisations are issued (539 in 2025), most applicants cannot clear the remaining hurdles—embassy appointments, entry visas and signing of contracts—before documents expire. Care-work and construction firms report losing candidates to other EU states with faster processes. Local CISL and CGIL officials argue that the multi-step procedure incentivises grey-market employment; workers may enter legally but drift into irregular status when contracts fall through. They are calling for a job-search residence permit or a fast-track conversion to regular status if a new employer is found within six months. Industry representatives from Confindustria Bergamo back the unions’ diagnosis, adding that quota increases alone are meaningless without administrative reform. They point to pilots that pre-qualify candidates in origin countries—an approach Italy has begun testing in Ethiopia and Egypt—as a more realistic model. For multinational HR teams the lesson is clear: unless the company can manage end-to-end sponsorship, relying on generic flussi quotas remains high-risk. Alternative pathways such as intra-company transfers or the EU Blue Card, recently simplified, may offer better timelines despite higher salary thresholds.
For employers and applicants trying to steer through Italy’s complex visa grid, platforms such as VisaHQ can provide practical relief: via its Italy page (https://www.visahq.com/italy/) the company offers end-to-end assistance with appointment scheduling, document preparation and progress monitoring, helping both sponsors and candidates avoid the administrative pitfalls spotlighted by the Bergamo data.
The province had already seen demand collapse: applications fell 62 % from 8,381 in 2024 after many employers lost faith that paperwork would translate into actual hires. Even when nulla osta work authorisations are issued (539 in 2025), most applicants cannot clear the remaining hurdles—embassy appointments, entry visas and signing of contracts—before documents expire. Care-work and construction firms report losing candidates to other EU states with faster processes. Local CISL and CGIL officials argue that the multi-step procedure incentivises grey-market employment; workers may enter legally but drift into irregular status when contracts fall through. They are calling for a job-search residence permit or a fast-track conversion to regular status if a new employer is found within six months. Industry representatives from Confindustria Bergamo back the unions’ diagnosis, adding that quota increases alone are meaningless without administrative reform. They point to pilots that pre-qualify candidates in origin countries—an approach Italy has begun testing in Ethiopia and Egypt—as a more realistic model. For multinational HR teams the lesson is clear: unless the company can manage end-to-end sponsorship, relying on generic flussi quotas remains high-risk. Alternative pathways such as intra-company transfers or the EU Blue Card, recently simplified, may offer better timelines despite higher salary thresholds.
