The Ministry of Labour and Social Policies announced on 27 July that its CO, UNIPI and UNIMARE online platforms—used for mandatory employer notifications, intra-company postings and maritime crew hiring—will be unavailable from 12:00 to 17:00 (CET) on Wednesday, 29 July 2026. The shutdown is required for a security patch and database upgrade intended to align the portals with the EU Single Permit Directive’s new data fields and the forthcoming Entry/Exit System (EES). During the five-hour window companies will be unable to file Comunicazioni Obbligatorie for new hires, secondments or end-of-assignment reports. Filings that are legally due on 29 July will be considered timely if submitted on 30 July before midnight, the ministry said. Seafarer contracts processed through the UNIMARE module must likewise be pre-registered or postponed. Corporate immigration teams should advise line managers not to schedule assignee start dates that require same-day filings and to download any draft applications before the blackout. Carriers bringing non-EU crew to Italian ports on 29 July should carry hard copies of pre-approved authorisations in case border officials cannot verify them electronically. The upgrade is part of a broader digital-government overhaul that will see the CO system integrated with the Interior Ministry’s ALI portal and the INPS social-security database by early 2027, reducing duplicate data entry for employers sponsoring foreign talent.
