In a bid to speed up naturalisation procedures that currently exceed 30 months in some prefectures, the Department for Civil Liberties and Immigration has published a call for ten external experts to reinforce its Citizenship and Minorities Directorate. The positions, financed by the EU’s 2021-2027 Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), will focus on improving applicant communication and digitising case-management workflows. Applications must be submitted by 19 October, and successful candidates will join the ‘Sportello Polo Orienta-2’ project, an initiative designed to centralise enquiries, reduce duplicative requests and cut average processing times by 20 percent within a year. Italy granted just under 200,000 citizenships in 2025, but a surge in iure sanguinis claims and marriage cases has created a backlog exceeding 400,000 files. For multinational employers the move is welcome: many foreign executives depend on citizenship to obtain EU-wide mobility and avoid country-quota restrictions under the decreto flussi. Faster processing could therefore enhance Italy’s attractiveness as a regional headquarters location—particularly important as neighbouring Spain and Portugal continue to refine their own ‘golden visa’ offerings. HR and immigration advisers should note that the experts will target front-office communication first, meaning applicants may receive more frequent status updates even before overall timelines fall. The Ministry also hinted at a forthcoming overhaul of the ALI online portal to enable biometric appointment booking, aligning it with the new digital-nomad visa workflow. The recruitment is a small but strategic step in modernising Italy’s migration bureaucracy, signalling that Rome understands the competitive dimension of citizenship and residency services in the global war for talent.
