Italy’s long-awaited 2027 foreign-labour quota has entered its operational phase. A joint circular from the Ministries of Interior, Labour, Agriculture and Tourism has confirmed that employers can pre-populate applications for nulla osta work authorisations on the ALI portal from 09:00 on 23 October until 20:00 on 7 December 2026. The measure implements the three-year planning decree (DPCM 2 October 2025) and aims to spread demand more evenly ahead of January–February ‘click-days’, reducing the platform crashes and legal disputes seen in previous years. For 2027 Italy will accept 165,850 non-EU workers: 76,200 for non-seasonal employment (including 14,000 home-care workers), 89,000 seasonal agricultural and tourism employees and 650 self-employed professionals. As in 2026, priority goes to candidates who have completed government-approved training abroad. Employers that fail to respect contractual wage or housing standards risk revocation of the permit at any stage. The pre-compilation phase is more than administrative housekeeping. All declarations are automatically cross-checked with tax, social-security and criminal databases, so companies must upload correct data on salary, accommodation and the absence of previous immigration violations. Only files that pass this screening receive a unique activation code that will unlock the online form on click-day, giving compliant firms a head start in the quota race. From a business-mobility perspective, the new timetable is crucial. Multinationals can now align global recruitment calendars with the Italian quota cycle, mitigate project-delivery risks and brief assignees about realistic arrival dates. Immigration vendors should also review their client-onboarding checklists, because the circular explicitly states that power-of-attorney documents and certified translations must be uploaded before pre-filing closes. Practically, HR teams with large seasonal needs—agriculture in the Po Valley, tourism operators in the Dolomites and along the Adriatic coast—should prepare four separate click-days in January and February 2027, each tied to a different visa model (C-stag, C-stag-turismo, B 2020, A-bis). Missing the window could push hiring back by an entire year. Digital identity issues remain a bottleneck, so testing SPID credentials on the portal this week is strongly advised.
Source: Informazione Fiscale
