Italy · Work authorisation

Out-of-quota entry for nurses (article 27, letter r-bis)

Issued by The Sportello Unico per l'Immigrazione at the prefecture, on an application filed by the hiring health facility. It is checked against conditions rather than scored, so the question is whether you meet each one, not how many points you gather.

Basis
Checklist
Steps
3
Possible outcomes
2
Last checked
2026-10-07

Conditions

What this permit
asks of you.

Which desk decides

The authority, exactly

No click day and no quota: the integration portal states that hiring a foreign nurse is allowed outside the quotas, so the application can be sent at any time of the year. The condition is the recognition: the regulation limits this route to nurses whose qualification the Ministry of Health has recognised.

Qualification

What it wants from your degree

A nursing qualification recognised by the Italian Ministry of Health, and a job with a public or private health facility.

The procedure

3 steps,
in the order they happen.

Prepare your documents

  1. Get the Ministry of Health's recognition decree first. The regulation applies this route exclusively to nurses holding the specific qualification recognised by the ministry, and the portal calls that recognition a necessary precondition for authorising entry from abroad.Until 31 December 2029 the statute extends this route to nurses hired under the temporary regional derogation, on employment or freelance contracts that may run longer than three months and be renewed. The recognition branch above explains that derogation and the disagreement between the statutes over its end date.

Get your qualification assessed

  1. Your employer applies for the nulla osta. Public and private health facilities may hire nurses on this route, including on open-ended contracts. A temporary work agency may apply once it holds the contract it signed with the health facility, and a cooperative may apply where it runs the whole facility, a ward or a service directly.

Register and start working

  1. Changing job later is allowed on one condition: the job you are hired for has to match the qualification the original nulla osta was issued for.

Cost and time

What it costs,
and how long the authority says it takes.

Timeframes

When to apply
At any time of the year: the route is outside the quotas

Published processing times, not a prediction about your case.

Both halves together

Guides that use this permit.

Each one takes a profession into Italy and runs the recognition branch and the authorisation branch side by side, including what your country of qualification adds.

Evidence

Every claim on this page, and where it came from.

4 official pages, each with the jurisdiction it speaks for and the date a human last opened it. The oldest is 2026-10-07, and that is the date this page is only as fresh as.

Is this the right permit for you?

That depends on where you qualified.

The planner compares every route Italy opens to your country of qualification, and adds the recognition branch when your profession has one.

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