Employment

Employment (concluding an employment contract with an employer in Italy).

Procedure of obtaining a work permit for employment (Nulla Osta per lavoro subordinato). Foreigners that wish to work in Italy first must find an employer and wait for an issuance of a Decree with allocated quota for foreign workers. When the day of request for a quota comes, the employer must apply for a work permit on behalf of his foreign worker.

To offer a job to a foreigner from the country that is not a member of the EU, the employer must apply for a work permit with the Immigration Office within the Prefecture (Sportello Unico per l’Immigrazione) - at place of future employment of a foreign worker - within foreign worker quotas according to The Flow Decree (Decreto Flussi) which determines the maximum allowable number of foreign workers from non-EU countries.

How to apply:
If the employer already knows the name of worker, he needs to provide the Immigration Office with the following:
• Through the website: Application with the name of the particular foreign worker;
• Documents that show accommodation arrangement for a foreign worker (accommodation must conform to sanitary and technical regulations);
• Draft of the contract with a foreign worker, which, along with all the necessary terms of the contract, indicates the responsibility of the employer to pay for a round trip in case of a worker’s deportation;
• Statement that the employer is obliged to notify the Immigration Office about any changes in the employment (termination of contract, change of legal address and so on).
After receiving the application, the Immigration Office:
• seeks the opinion of the Questura in regards to a foreign worker: whether there are any reasons preventing him from obtaining the permit;
• seeks the opinion of the Department of Labour of the Province in regards to employer’s solvency and the contract: whether the terms of contract with a foreign worker meet the minimum requirements.
If at least one of these institutions gives a negative opinion, the Immigration Office denies issuance of work permit to a particular foreign worker.
In case of a positive response the Immigration Office:
• calls the employer to issue a permit and to sign the contract with a foreign worker;
• provides documents to the appropriate Italian consulate remotely, through a special computer program.

Work permit is valid for only 180 days from the date of issuance indicated on the permit itself; within these 6 months the worker must apply for D Visa – Visa "per lavoro subordinato" at the consulate. Upon receiving an application for visa, the consulate provides worker with a draft of the contract with the employer, and within 30 days it issues a visa that allows working in Italy; the consulate must also notify the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Italy, the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, the National Institute of Social Services and the State Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
Within 8 days of arrival to Italy, a foreign worker must present himself to the Immigration Office that issued his work permit, to sign the contract with the employer and to obtain a special form (Mod 209) that he will use to apply for Residence. This is a very important step in the process: if a foreign worker does not follow this procedure, his stay in Italy will be considered illegal.
Once the application is submitted, the Immigration Office:
• checks the visa issued by the consulate and checks the accuracy of the information provided by worker;
• assigns an individual tax number to worker;
• ensures that the contract between the employer and the worker is signed;
• provides worker with the application form to file for Residence and notifies the appropriate Questura.

Granting Residence
After receiving necessary forms from the Immigration Office, a foreign worker sends an application for Residence via regular mail. The post office that accepted the application gives a foreign worker a receipt with a hologram and two personal identification codes (login and password) that provide access to the application status at www.portaleimmigrazione.it. Upon sending an application, the post office also appoints the date of identification of a foreign worker in Questura (fingerprinting). Once the identification process is complete, the worker can check (through a police website) the status of processing of Residence card by the number indicated on the receipt.