Draft text leaked on 7 July confirms that the cabinet will tomorrow approve a Prime-Ministerial Decree allocating 497 550 quotas for non-EU workers over the 2026-2028 cycle: 164 850 slots for 2026, 165 850 for 2027 and 166 850 for 2028. The figures include 76 850 permits a year for permanent hires and self-employed professionals, plus 88-90 000 seasonal visas as the agri-food and tourism sectors gear up for post-pandemic recovery. Preferential sub-quotas will reward source countries that run public-information campaigns against irregular migration in cooperation with Italy, echoing the ‘information in origin’ clauses piloted with Tunisia and Bangladesh last year. The decree also reserves 13-14 000 places annually for domestic caregivers (colf and badanti) to help households cope with Italy’s ageing-population labour gap. Employers welcome the earlier-than-usual publication, which gives them a full quarter to prepare compliance packets before the autumn click-day. Immigration attorneys note, however, that only 7.8 % of the 2024 quotas translated into actual residence permits, largely due to back-logs at police headquarters that print biometric cards. The new decree therefore instructs prefectures to fast-track digital fingerprints within 30 days. Companies planning 2027 project ramp-ups should lock in applications this year: unused quotas can no longer be carried forward. Multinationals with global-mobility programmes are advised to pre-register on the revamped Ministry of Labour portal, which now supports bulk uploads in XML and provides API hooks for HR systems.
Source: La Sicilia
