Italy has strengthened a little-known legal route that allows certain non-EU workers to enter the country for employment outside the annual Decreto Flussi quotas. In 2026, foreign nationals who complete approved vocational and civic-language training programmes in their countries of origin can be registered on the SIISL employment platform, making their professional profiles visible to Italian employers and facilitating recruitment without waiting for a click day.
Who can use this route?
This procedure is not open to every worker living abroad. It applies specifically to non-EU nationals who have successfully completed vocational training and civic-language programmes approved by the Italian Ministry of Labour under Article 23 of Legislative Decree no. 286/1998, the Italian Immigration Act.
The purpose of these programmes is to prepare workers before their arrival in Italy, both professionally and linguistically, and to connect training in the country of origin with actual labour-market needs in Italy. The important practical consequence is that workers who complete an approved programme may be hired outside the numerical quotas fixed each year by the Decreto Flussi.
What changed in 2026?
A decree adopted on 22 June 2026 and published in the Official Gazette on 19 August 2026 established the operational rules for registering these workers on the Sistema Informativo per l’Inclusione Sociale e Lavorativa, known as SIISL. This platform, managed by INPS for the Ministry of Labour, is designed to match jobseekers with employers.
The foreign worker does not normally initiate the registration alone. The organisation that proposed or managed the approved training programme must complete the necessary steps. The worker’s details are transmitted to SIISL through the Ministry’s platform for workers trained abroad, after which the programme promoter integrates the professional profile and contact information.
SIISL then sends a communication to the worker so that the registration can be completed and the personal profile activated. Once activation has taken place, the system creates a pre-filled curriculum containing information about the training completed abroad. That curriculum can then be viewed by employers operating in sectors consistent with the worker’s professional training.
No click day and no annual quota
The main advantage of this channel is that an employer does not have to wait for the annual click day or compete for one of the ordinary Decreto Flussi quotas. A request for authorisation to work can be submitted at any time of the year to the Sportello Unico per l’Immigrazione through the Ministry of the Interior’s online system.
The application is made through the specific procedure for workers trained abroad and the system checks whether the worker is actually included among those who completed an approved programme. If the worker is not listed, the application cannot be submitted under this special route.
The employer must still comply with the ordinary requirements governing the employment of a non-EU national. In particular, the employment conditions must be genuine and lawful and, where required, the application must be accompanied by the professional certification known as asseverazione, confirming that the contractual and economic conditions required by law are satisfied.
A faster nulla osta procedure
The legislation also provides a shorter timeframe for the work authorisation. For workers trained abroad under Article 23, the maximum period for the nulla osta has been reduced to 30 days. If no legal obstacle emerges within the relevant procedure, the authorisation is transmitted electronically to the competent Italian diplomatic or consular authority.
Unlike the ordinary Decreto Flussi procedure, the employer is not required to carry out the prior labour-market availability check through the employment centre for this category of worker. Moreover, the special confirmation by the employer immediately before the issue of the visa, required in some other employment-entry procedures, does not apply to workers admitted through the approved training route.
The visa must still be requested in time
Being included in an approved training programme does not automatically produce a right to enter Italy. The worker must still obtain the work visa from the competent Italian consular authority after the nulla osta has been issued.
Under the rules currently applicable on an experimental basis until 31 December 2027, the worker has up to 12 months from the completion of the approved training course to submit the visa application. This time limit is therefore important: completing the course is only the first step, and the immigration procedure must then be activated within the period provided by law.
What happens after entry into Italy?
Once the visa has been issued, the worker may enter Italy and proceed with the formalities required for the employment relationship and the residence permit. The nulla osta allows the employment activity to begin while the residence contract formalities are being completed, provided that the employer also carries out the mandatory employment notification.
Under the current rules, the employer and the worker must complete the residence contract procedure within 15 days of entry. The documentation is then transmitted to the Sportello Unico per l’Immigrazione for the subsequent steps connected with the application for a residence permit for subordinate employment.
Why SIISL matters for workers and employers
The 2026 SIISL reform does not replace the immigration procedure, but it changes an important part of the recruitment process. Until now, one of the practical difficulties of the Article 23 route was connecting workers who had already completed recognised training abroad with employers actually willing to hire them in Italy. Making their curricula visible through SIISL is intended to reduce that gap.
For foreign workers, the decisive point is to verify that the training programme is genuinely approved by the Ministry of Labour. Private courses or language courses that are not part of an approved Article 23 programme do not provide access to this special immigration channel. For employers, the advantage is the possibility of recruiting trained workers throughout the year without depending on the availability of ordinary Decreto Flussi quotas.
The new system therefore creates a structured legal alternative to the click-day mechanism, but only for a precisely defined category of workers. Before starting the procedure, it remains essential to verify the worker’s inclusion in an approved programme, the date on which the course was completed, the contractual requirements and the correct use of the online procedure for the nulla osta.
Avv. Fabio Loscerbo
Avvocato Cassazionista
Iscritto nel Registro dei rappresentanti di interessi della Camera dei deputati in materia di Immigrazione
Lobbista registrato presso il Registro per la Trasparenza dell’Unione europea n. 280782895721-36 in materia di Migrazione e Asilo
ORCID: 0009-0004-7030-0428
Articolo redatto con l’ausilio di strumenti di AI, sotto la direzione, revisione e responsabilità editoriale dell’autore.
