The failure of the immigration quotas and the ineffective click-day system

 Regulatory references

Law No. 187 of 9 December 2024 (converting Legislative Decree 145/2024) introduced urgent changes regarding the entry of foreign workers into Italy, the fight against illegal hiring and the management of migration flows. There is no "block" based on personal failures, but there are restrictions and stricter controls for employers, aimed at preventing fraud and exploitation.

Here are the relevant key points, effective from December 2024:

• Limit on requests for Nulla Osta: To limit the instrumentalization of applications, a maximum limit of 3 requests for nulla osta to work that can be submitted by individual employers as private users has been reintroduced (not applicable if the requests are sent through employers' organizations or labor consultants).

• Checks on employers: Checks on the employer's economic capacity and the regularity of social security and tax positions have been strengthened, in order to avoid "ghost" entries where the worker does not find employment.

• Fight against illegal hiring: The law aims to better monitor the effective hiring of workers, ensuring that entry is linked to a real employment relationship, against the practice of "selling" clearances.

Law 187/2024, Urgent provisions on the entry into Italy of foreign workers, protection and assistance to victims of illegal hiring, management of migration flows and international protection.

Conversion into law, with amendments, of Decree-Law No. 145 of 11 October 2024.

The Law of 9 December 2024, converting Decree-Law No. 145/2024, has been published in the Official Gazette, simplifying the procedures for the entry of workers from abroad, introducing electronic management of applications for clearance, with the possibility of digitally signing permits. In the management of flows, protections for victims of illegal hiring, trafficking and labour exploitation are strengthened, as well as new methods for family reunification.

The system of entries for work continues to produce worrying results: almost two years after the click days of 2024, compared to 146,850 people scheduled for entry, there are 24,858 residence permits requested, equal to a success rate of 16.9%. Only about 17 people out of 100 manage to enter Italy and have a job and a regular residence permit. For 2025, the picture does not seem to be improving: out of 181,450 quotas by decree, 14,349 residence permits are required, 7.9%, i.e. about 8 out of 100 people finalized the procedure in December 2025.

These are the unpublished data that the Ero straniero campaign presents in the IV annual report on the results of the entry procedure for work of the 2023-25 three-year flow programming, updated to December 2025. An analysis that monitors the entire supply chain of the flow decree – from applications to clearances, from visas to entries, up to the signing of the residence contract – through the data obtained from civic accesses to the competent ministries (Interior, Labour and MAECI) and the Prime Minister's Office. The campaign is promoted by A Buon Diritto, ActionAid, ASGI, Federation of Italian Evangelical Churches, Oxfam, Arci, CNCA, CILD.

Another figure to highlight concerns the visas granted: for 2024, there are 35,287 visas issued, equal to 48.5% of the authorizations issued. With regard to the 2025 flows, 32,968 visas were issued, equal to 66.25% of the clearances. The passage of visas also sees numerous negative outcomes: 10,611, in addition to 4,171 pending cases. These results are linked to the government's decision to intensify controls on the four countries deemed "at risk" with respect to scams and offences: the negative outcomes of people from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Morocco are about 34% of the total, pending applications represent 90% of the total, a sign of the impact of controls in the pre-investigation phase and the suspension of applications imposed by Decree Law 145 of 2024.

The system today appears "cleaner" only on paper: fewer applications, fewer suspended practices, fewer formally unissued visas but, in reality, the new filters and controls introduced have moved the block to the beginning of the procedure, lengthening the time before the issuance of the visa and restricting access to regular channels, with the real risk of pushing workers into irregular channels.

How many people have entered Italy without being hired and are at risk of irregularities? "The quantification of this figure is difficult to obtain, underline the Ero straniero campaign, as it is not possible to know from the databases of the competent ministries how many people have actually entered Italy, but an estimate can be made based on the data obtained. If we subtract from the number of visas granted that of people with clearance in hand and since they are still in their countries of origin in the position of "waiting for entry", we should have an estimate of the people who have actually arrived in Italy. Removing the total number of successful practices from this figure, we can assume an estimate of the number of people who entered with the flow decree and remained without a residence permit currently in Italy.

For the 2024 flows, it can be estimated that about 26,700 people have actually arrived, equal to just over 18% of the planned workforce: of these, 7% experience the real risk of slipping into irregularity. As for 2025, of the 26,000 people who entered Italy – as of last December – 11,686 people, about half, were at risk of irregularities".

These are often workers who are victims of real scams and illegitimate behavior, who have paid a few thousand euros to alleged intermediaries, employers or fictitious companies in exchange for hiring, only to arrive in Italy and have no more news from them.

A solution with unchanged legislation to prevent these people from becoming irregular, countering precariousness and exploitation, already exists. This is the possibility, provided for by a circular of the Ministry of the Interior, to grant a residence permit for pending employment to a worker who, once in Italy, detects the unwillingness of the employer to finalize the hiring, when this situation is not attributable to them. So far, the use of this protection has been minimal and should be encouraged and made more automatic in the administration of the interior.

The Report underlines how the current system is one that loses jobs at every step. A novelty compared to the past concerns the considerable drop in applications sent in 2025, which were 222,617, a number higher than the quotas but very far from those recorded in the years prior to the introduction of online pre-compilation: in 2024 the requests were almost five times more than the places made available.

Compared to the next step in the issuance of the clearance, the 2024 flows, two years after the click days, confirm the structurally ineffective nature of the mechanism. Out of 720,848 applications, 72,704 authorizations were issued. On the other hand, the negative outcomes were very high: the practices rejected, revoked, archived or renounced in December 2025 were 127,783. For 2025, albeit with provisional data, there is a similar situation and there are 49,762 authorizations issued and 33,777 negative outcomes. In the face of these unfavorable outcomes, however, very few, just over 3% of the negative outcomes in the two years considered, are the unused quotas that are subsequently redistributed, as required by law.

Thousands of posts provided for by the decree thus remain unusable immediately, despite the declared need for manpower. Finally, it should be emphasized that the quotas for entries that can actually be used – because they were assigned to individual Italian prefectures by the Ministry of Labor at the end of 2025 – are only 63.7% of the quotas established for 2025 and 81.6% for 2024 flows: in fact, already at the start, a few thousand available places provided for in the government's three-year programming are lost.

It is worth noting the positive impact on the entry mechanism of the most substantial changes introduced in recent years in terms of greater flexibility in the procedure and overcoming the rigid quota system, i.e. the involvement of employers' associations in the procedure together with conversions and non-quota entries, in the personal assistance sector and of workers trained abroad.

This is, of course, the way forward towards a more general reform of the system of entry for work, such as the one that the campaign has been proposing for some time, starting with the introduction of diversified and flexible channels designed to effectively match supply and demand and starting not only from the needs of our labour market, but also taking into account the expectations of workers from third countries,  so as to prevent them from risking their lives by relying on traffickers.

Published the Decree Law no. 146 of 3 October 2025

"Urgent provisions on the legal entry of foreign workers and citizens, as well as on the management of the migration phenomenon". The measure introduces changes to the relevant legislation and consolidates some measures provided for by Decree Law 145/2024, converted by Law 187/2024.

In the procedures for the entry and hiring of foreign workers, including seasonal workers, the institutions of the pre-compilation of requests for work clearance and the limit of three requests for clearance by employers as private users, already provided for on an experimental basis for 2025, are put in place.

From a procedural point of view, it is also provided that the deadline for the adoption of the authorization for subordinate work starts from the moment the request is charged to the entry fee, rather than from the date of submission of the application. In addition, the prescribed check in relation to the veracity of the declarations made by employers during the pre-compilation phase of applications for employment clearance for the year 2025 is also extended to declarations provided for entries relating to: subordinate work in special cases, volunteering, research, highly qualified foreign workers, intra-company transfers.

The possibility for the foreign worker to carry out work is also extended to cases of waiting for the conversion of the residence permit, in addition to those already provided for issue and renewal. In order to standardize the regulations relating to residence permits issued to victims of trafficking, domestic violence and illegal intermediation and labor exploitation, the duration of the latter is increased from 6 to 12 months and the right to the inclusion allowance, already provided for victims of labor exploitation, is also extended to holders of permits issued pursuant to Articles 18 and 18-bis.

In terms of combating labour exploitation, the operation of the Caporalato Table is stabilised and the possibility of participating in meetings is also recognised for civilly recognised religious bodies.

For the three-year period 2026-2028, the quota of 10,000 annual entries outside the quota mechanism established by the flow decrees for workers to be employed, in the family or social health care sector, for the assistance of people with disabilities or over eighty years of age is confirmed. It is envisaged that the ministerial decree relating to the contingent of young foreigners who can participate in volunteering programs of general interest and social utility will take place every three years and no longer annually, in line with the time frequency of the other decrees that set entry quotas.

With regard to family reunification, the deadline for issuing the authorization is expected to be increased from 90 to 150 days, in line with the nine-month deadline provided for by European legislation.

At the same time, the Council of Ministers approved, in final examination, the Prime Minister's Decree relating to the planning of the legal entry flows into Italy of foreign workers for the three-year period 2026-2028 (Flows Decree), which is expected to be published in the Official Gazette.

Chapter I of Decree-Law 145/2024 contains a series of amendments to the regulation of entry into Italy for work reasons, introduced by the Government with the aim of overcoming certain irregularities that have emerged in the application of the mechanisms of entry flows for work.

Below is a summary of the main innovations introduced.

FINGERPRINTING WHEN APPLYING FOR A WORK VISA

The obligation to acquire biometric identifiers (currently fingerprints), currently provided for Schengen visas only on the basis of the Visa Code, is extended to national visas. This provision will only come into force from 11 January 2025.

SIMPLIFICATION OF THE PROCEDURES FOR REFUSING ENTRY VISAS

Until now, in the absence of an express derogation rule, the refusal of the visa had to be preceded by a notice of rejection pursuant to Article 10-bis of Law no. 241/1990. For Schengen visas, the Visa Code does not impose a rejection notice.

The amendment introduced now provides that in all cases Article 10-bis, relating to the notice of rejection, does not apply to procedures relating to entry visas as well as to the refusal and revocation of the residence permit determined by the revocation of the entry visa.

ABOLITION OF THE MECHANISM OF QUOTAS PROVIDED FOR BY THE FLOWS DECREE, RESERVED FOR THE CONVERSION OF RESIDENCE PERMITS INTO SUBORDINATE WORK

The so-called "Cutro decree" (DL 20/2023 converted into Law 50/2023) had suppressed the provision that made the conversion of residence permits issued for study and training purposes subject to the availability of a quota provided for by the flows decree. In all these cases, the conversion of the residence permit, provided it is still valid, takes place outside the quota mechanism provided for by the flows decree. It follows that these permits can now be converted at any time of the year and without numerical limits . In line with these provisions, the new rules eliminate the quota limit for the conversion of residence permits issued for seasonal work (Article 24 of Legislative Decree 286/1998 TUI), as well as for EU residence permits for long-term residents issued by another Member State of the European Union (Article 9-bis TUI).

This is an important simplification that helps to combat irregularity and the resulting phenomena of exploitation and undeclared work, as well as to facilitate the right of long-term residents to move and work in other Member States, facilitating mobility within the EU and removing one of the obstacles that have so far prevented its exercise.

OBLIGATION TO ELECT A DIGITAL DOMICILE FOR THE EMPLOYER AND DIGITIZATION OF THE PROCEDURE RELATING TO THE SIGNING AND SENDING OF THE RESIDENCE CONTRACT.

The obligation for the employer to provide the Administration with a digital domicile (PEC) is introduced to allow the certain sending of communications essential to the continuation of the application process. Article 37 of Legislative Decree no. 76/2020 ("provisions to encourage the use of certified e-mail in relations between the Administration, companies and professionals"), had actually already established the obligation (expected by 1 October 2020) to communicate one's digital domicile to the Business Register, for all companies established in corporate or individual form . This ensures the availability, at the Immigration Desk, of a certified email from the employer to which all communications of interest to the Administration can be sent and received, with all legal value

DIGITAL SIGNING OF THE RESIDENCE CONTRACT

With the new rules, entry procedures are digitized: the signing of the residence contract and the integration agreement in digital form is provided for directly between the parties and no longer at the Single Immigration Desk, with subsequent transmission of these documents to the Desk by the employer.

In particular, in relation to the initial phase of the procedure for issuing the authorization for subordinate employment, Article 22, paragraph 2, of the TUI has been amended, providing for the obligation, for the employer, to transmit to the Single Desk for Immigration, at the same time as the application, the certificate of housing suitability and the sworn in digital original, as well as the digital domicile (PEC). This amendment will allow the Administration to receive the necessary original documentation from the start phase of the administrative procedure, thus eliminating the need for a subsequent summons of the employer to the One-Stop Shop for the purpose of acquiring such original paper documentation.

In line with the digitalisation of the procedure, with reference to the phase following the issuance of the subordinate work authorisation, the obligation for the employer and the worker, within eight days of the latter's entry into the national territory, to go to the Single Immigration Desk for the purpose of signing the residence contract, is abolished. In particular, it is envisaged that within the aforementioned eight-day period, the employer and the employee must digitally sign (by affixing a digital signature or other type of qualified electronic signature) the residence contract which, by the employer, must be promptly transmitted to the Single Immigration Desk for the fulfilment of the requirements relating to the request for a residence permit. The worker may also sign the contract in handwritten form.

The new regulation of digitization of the procedure for signing the residence contract also applies to the procedures for issuing the authorization for seasonal work, entry for work in special cases referred to in art. 27 T.U.I. and entry and residence for highly qualified workers referred to in art. 27-quarter of the Consolidated Law on Finance.

In all cases, the revocation of the authorization for subordinate work is provided for in the event of failure to transmit, within eight days, the digitally signed residence contract, unless the delay was due to force majeure or, in general, to causes not attributable to the worker. Finally, the digitization of the procedure for signing the integration agreement referred to in Article 4-bis of the Consolidated Law on Banking has also been introduced.

REQUEST FOR CONFIRMATION FROM THE EMPLOYER BEFORE THE ISSUANCE OF THE VISA AND SANCTION OF INADMISSIBILITY OF THE APPLICATION FOR FAILURE TO SIGN THE RESIDENCE CONTRACT IN THE PAST

Provisions have been introduced aimed at preventing or dealing with certain conducts of employers who, after submitting the request for clearance, are not interested in the continuation of the related administrative procedure.

Therefore, the employer is obliged to confirm the interest in hiring the worker before the visa is issued. In particular, the employer must confirm the request for authorization within seven days of the communication of the conclusion of the investigations on the application for an entry visa submitted by the worker. In the absence of such confirmation from the employer, the request for clearance is considered refused and the clearance is revoked. In practice, the new procedure, which will only come into force from January, provides that once the work clearance has been issued, the Visa Information System that receives the visa application from the worker, will send, before working it, a communication to the Information System of the One-Stop Shop, which in turn will transmit to the employer via PEC a request for confirmation of interest in hiring. Only the positive confirmation, communicated on the return between the systems, will make the visa issuance process continue. In the absence of confirmation within 7 days, the authorization is revoked.

It also provides for the inadmissibility of the request for authorization submitted by the employer who, in the previous three years, has not signed the residence contract as a result of a previous, similar request. Also inadmissible is the application submitted by the employer against whom, at the time of submission, a decree has been issued ordering the trial or conviction for the crime of illegal intermediation and labor exploitation (Article 603-bis of the Criminal Code).

REDUCTION OF THE TERMS FOR THE PREVENTIVE VERIFICATION OF THE UNAVAILABILITY OF WORKERS ALREADY PRESENT ON THE NATIONAL TERRITORY (SO-CALLED LABOUR MARKET TEST)

Since 2022, the employer, before sending the request for work clearance, is required to check with the competent Employment Center that there are no other workers already present in the national territory available to fill the job for which the worker who is abroad is intended to be hired. This verification must be carried out by sending a request for personnel to the Employment Centre, through a form prepared by the Ministry of Labour or the Regions. The request for clearance, therefore, can only be proceeded if:- the worker reported by the employment centre is not suitable for the job offered by the employer;- the worker sent by the employment centre does not appear, unless there is a justified reason, for the selection interview, at least twenty working days after the date of the request.- or the Employment Centre does not respond to the request submitted by the employer. With the new decree, the waiting days required for a response have been reduced from 15 to 8. Therefore, if the employment centre does not communicate within 8 days of receipt of the request that it has identified one or more available workers in line with the profile sought, the employer can legitimately consider that the search has been unsuccessful and proceed with the request for work clearance. The occurrence of the above circumstances must result from a self-certification that the employer must attach to the application for work authorization.

This prior verification of the unavailability of workers present on the national territory is not required for seasonal workers and for workers trained abroad.

SEASONAL WORKERS, POSSIBILITY OF STIPULATING, DURING THE PERIOD OF VALIDITY OF THE WORK AUTHORIZATION, A NEW CONTRACT WITHIN 60 DAYS OF THE EXPIRATION OF THE PREVIOUS ONE.

The current regulations provide that the one-stop shop for immigration issues the authorization for seasonal work for the duration corresponding to that of the seasonal work requested. Without prejudice to the nine-month limit, the authorization for seasonal work is extended and the residence permit can be renewed in the event of a new seasonal work opportunity offered by the same or another employer until the expiration of the new seasonal employment relationship. In this case, the worker is exempt from the obligation to return to the country of origin for the issuance of a further visa. The new rules provide first of all for the compulsory registration of seasonal workers on the so-called "Seasonal Workers". SIISL platform (information system for social and work inclusion, established by Decree-Law no. 48/23) following the signing of the residence contract (also in this case digitized). Although the worker's position will initially be archived by virtue of the existing employment relationship established at the time of entry, it will return to be visible at the expiry of the previous contract in order to facilitate the worker in finding a new job. The new employment relationship must also be compulsorily intermediated through the SIISL platform.

The new rules also set a time limit, equal to sixty days from the final term of the previous employment contract, within which the new seasonal job offer and the consequent extension and renewal of the authorization and residence permit can take place. The obligation for the seasonal worker remains unchanged, without prejudice to the possibility of converting the residence permit into another permit for different reasons (conversion now possible outside the quotas) to leave the national territory upon expiry of the residence permit.

In addition to the changes to the regime, the new decree contains, in Article 2, a series of RULES INTRODUCED ON AN EXPERIMENTAL BASIS FOR 2025 aimed at rationalizing the procedures for issuing the authorization for the entry of foreign citizens for subordinate employment reasons, provided for the year 2025 by the Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers of 27 September 2023. 

These rules provide:

THE PRE-COMPILATION OF APPLICATIONS FOR WORK CLEARANCE WITH EARLY CLOSURE WITH RESPECT TO CLICK DAY

The pre-filling phase of the application forms on the IT portal made available by the Ministry of the Interior is regulated and anticipated by months with respect to the so-called click day. This is a phase in which employers are offered the opportunity to select the authorization request form and prepare the fields so that the application is ready for sending on the so-called click day, in which it is essential to send applications promptly, as they are mainly processed in chronological order of arrival. In order to extend the time for checks and allow the regularization or exclusion of non-prosecutable applications, the new rules provide that the pre-filling of forms will only be possible from 1 November 2024 to 30 November 2024 (as well as, limited to the tourism sector for the click day of 1 October from 1 July to 31 July). At the same time as access to the pre-compilation, the administrations concerned will carry out a verification check on the declarations provided by the employers and subsequently, during the period of time between the closing of the deadline for the pre-loading of applications and the click day, checks will be carried out on compliance with the provisions of the CCNL and checks on the adequacy of the number of requests submitted,  also taking into account the asseveration that the employer attaches to the foreign worker's application for employment. For further clarification on how to fill in the forms, the decree refers to a special interministerial circular.

EXPERIMENTAL ENTRY CHANNEL FOR THE CARE OF THE ELDERLY AND DISABLED, WITHIN THE LIMIT OF 10,000 UNITS

Also on an experimental basis for 2025, the new decree provides for the entry of foreign workers, up to a maximum of 10,000 quotas, to be employed in the family and social-health care sector exclusively for the elderly (i.e. over eighty) or people with disabilities. This is a quota that is in addition to the 9,500 quotas already allocated by the flows decree to the family assistance sector, but for the entry of which a different procedure is envisaged, in view of a possible effective exit of this category of workers from the flows decree, due to the fluidity and difficult to program the work needs related to these specific sectors.

The procedure that is being tested provides that requests for authorization for this category of workers must be submitted to the Single Desk for Immigration exclusively through the employment agencies (APL), i.e. the employers' associations that are signatories of the current national collective bargaining agreement for the domestic sector. In practice, even if the employment relationship is actually established with the assisted person and not with the Agency, applications for work clearance can only be submitted through the APL or the employers' associations. Applications for employment may be submitted for personal assistance to the person of the patient or his/her spouse or relative or relative within, with some exceptions, the second degree, even if they do not live together, provided that they reside in Italy. The employment of the spouse and relative or relative within the third degree of the assisted person is not allowed.

A click day (7 February 2025) is also scheduled for the submission of these applications and all the provisions of Article 22 of the TUI apply, with the exception of silent consent in the examination of the related applications for work clearance. The authorization will therefore be issued only after verification by the National Labour Inspectorate on compliance with the requirements and procedures referred to in Article 24-bis of the same Consolidated Act.

The new rules also provide for some limitations for workers who will use this entry channel: in particular, in the first twelve months of effective legal employment on the national territory, it will be possible to exercise only the authorized work activity and any change of employer is subject to prior authorization by the competent territorial labor inspectorates. At the end of the twelve months, in the event of an offer of another fixed-term or permanent employment contract, a new authorization must be requested from the one-stop shop for immigration, but within the limits of quotas that should be fixed with the subsequent flow decrees.

MAXIMUM NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS PER APPLICANT

The new rules introduce for 2025 a maximum limit for applications for work clearance that can be submitted by individual employers who do not rely on the intermediation of employers' organizations. This limit, already envisaged in the past, but eliminated starting from 2007, aims to prevent the proliferation of applications from individuals behind which there is no real job offer. To limit instrumentalization, the reintroduction of a limit of 3 requests for work clearance submitted by employers as private users is now envisaged.  This limit does not apply to requests for clearance submitted through employers' organizations or labor consultants.

ELIMINATION OF SILENT CONSENT FOR THE EXAMINATION PHASE OF APPLICATIONS RELATING TO WORKERS FROM AT-RISK STATES (IN 2025 THESE ARE BANGLADESH, PAKISTAN AND SRI LANKA)

Article 3 of the new decree, in order to prevent and combat recently found phenomena of irregularities in the management of the flows of entry into Italy of foreign workers, provides that, for workers who are citizens of States and territories characterized by a high risk of submitting applications accompanied by counterfeit documentation or without the requirements provided for by law, the procedure of silent consent provided for the issuance of the work authorization does not apply. As a rule, after 60 days (term reduced to 20 days for seasonal work) from the submission of the applications for work clearance without the reasons for the obstruction having emerged, the authorization is issued automatically and sent - electronically - to the Italian diplomatic representations of the countries of origin which will have to issue the entry visa. According to the amendment introduced, for the hiring of workers from those countries that will be identified by a special decree of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the procedure of automatic issuance of the nulla osta will not be possible and the nulla osta to work can only be issued after effective checks by the Police Headquarters and the Labour Inspectorate. On a transitional basis, pending the adoption of this decree, this procedure will immediately apply to citizens of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and will also extend to applications for clearance submitted in 2024 and for which an entry visa has not yet been issued.

The first part of the decree concludes with provisions aimed at strengthening the personnel responsible for the procedures of entry into Italy for work reasons of the Ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs.

Lawyer Fiorentino Fraganza