At exactly 09:00 CET on 27 February 2026, the Italian Interior Ministry’s immigration portal opened its fourth and final ‘Click Day’ for this year’s Decreto Flussi. The highly competitive window released the last 8,000 quotas across all sectors, after three earlier February rounds were snapped up in under 60 seconds. The 2026 decree authorises 150,000 non-EU workers overall – a 12 % increase on 2025 – with agriculture, tourism, construction and logistics receiving the lion’s share. Under the system, Italian employers must pre-register and then race to upload applications the moment the portal goes live; timestamps down to the millisecond decide who gets a coveted nulla osta (work authorisation). Consultancy Click Day Italia reported that within 52 seconds the residual quota was fully assigned, mirroring last year’s record pace despite a modest bump in available places. What’s new for 2026 is a simplified track for companies with a clean compliance history in previous decrees and priority processing for nationals of 11 partner countries – including Albania, Morocco and the Philippines – with which Italy has bilateral labour agreements. Successful applicants should receive clearance within 60 days, after which they apply for a national type-D visa and receive their residence permit on arrival.
![Fourth ‘Click Day’ opens 8,000 residual work-permit slots under Italy’s 2026 Decreto Flussi]()
For those gearing up for the visa stage, VisaHQ can help streamline the process. Through its dedicated Italy page (https://www.visahq.com/italy/), the platform offers up-to-date checklists, appointment scheduling tools and expert document reviews, making sure both employers and assignees sail smoothly from nulla osta to entry visa without last-minute surprises.
For HR teams the lesson is clear: preparation is everything. Authorities reject hundreds of files each year for missing accommodation guarantees or outdated DURC (social-contribution) certificates. Mobility managers are therefore rehearsing the upload sequence, pre-compressing PDF attachments and using SPID corporate digital IDs to cut precious seconds off submission time. Employers who missed out on 27 February have two fall-back options. First, a supplementary decree focusing on seasonal farm labour is expected in May. Second, firms can petition for highly skilled talent outside the quota via the EU Blue Card scheme, although salary thresholds are markedly higher. As long as Italy’s labour shortages persist, lobby groups say the sprint-style Click Day will remain a fixture of the mobility calendar.
For those gearing up for the visa stage, VisaHQ can help streamline the process. Through its dedicated Italy page (https://www.visahq.com/italy/), the platform offers up-to-date checklists, appointment scheduling tools and expert document reviews, making sure both employers and assignees sail smoothly from nulla osta to entry visa without last-minute surprises.
For HR teams the lesson is clear: preparation is everything. Authorities reject hundreds of files each year for missing accommodation guarantees or outdated DURC (social-contribution) certificates. Mobility managers are therefore rehearsing the upload sequence, pre-compressing PDF attachments and using SPID corporate digital IDs to cut precious seconds off submission time. Employers who missed out on 27 February have two fall-back options. First, a supplementary decree focusing on seasonal farm labour is expected in May. Second, firms can petition for highly skilled talent outside the quota via the EU Blue Card scheme, although salary thresholds are markedly higher. As long as Italy’s labour shortages persist, lobby groups say the sprint-style Click Day will remain a fixture of the mobility calendar.
