General care nurse · Italy

Work in Italy
as a nurse.

Italy splits the licence in two. The Ministry of Health recognises your qualification by decree, and the nursing order of your province registers you after an exam of its own. Only the second lets you practise, and the out-of-quota entry for nurses needs the first.

Recognition
Regulated
Work permits sourced
3
Official sources
37
Last checked
2026-08-03
  1. IndiaYour documents, prepared here
  2. RecognitionRequired to practise here
  3. Right to work3 permits compared
  4. ItalyEvery source read since 2026‑08‑03
Build my roadmap →Compare the permits

The short answer

Two questions, and they are not the same question.

◎Licence decision required

Recognition

Regulated · non-EU qualifications are assessed case by case

Who decides: Ministry of Health (Ministero della Salute), which recognises the qualification; then the provincial OPI (Ordine delle Professioni Infermieristiche), which registers you — Two separate acts. The ministry's decree says your qualification is valid in Italy; registration with the provincial OPI is what lets you practise, and FNOPI states that enrolment in the register is compulsory for nursing practice. The ministry's form for EU citizens warns, in general terms, that practising a health profession in Italy before it recognises the qualification is a criminal offence.

Italy runs recognition profession by profession. The official list of regulated professions names, for each one, the authority that decides, which under D.Lgs. 206/2007 is the ministry that supervises that profession. A profession is regulated in Italy when practising it requires registration in an order, college or public register, when access to employment in it requires a qualification by law, or when it is practised under a reserved title. Where the profession is not regulated, no recognition is needed to work: the employer reads the qualification.

↗Always required

Work authorisation

Whatever the recognition branch says, you still need the legal right to work in Italy. We have sourced 3 routes for a qualification obtained outside the EU and EEA.

  • EU Blue Card (Carta blu UE)
  • Salaried work within the annual quotas (decreto flussi)
  • Out-of-quota entry for nurses (article 27, letter r-bis)

Qualified inside the EU or EEA? Free movement replaces this branch entirely — pick your country below and the answer changes accordingly.

Work authorisation

Every permit we can source,
side by side.

Open the full roadmap →

EU Blue Card (Carta blu UE)

The Sportello Unico per l'Immigrazione at the prefecture, on an application filed by the employer; then the Italian consulate for the visa and the Questura for the permit

Checklist
Qualification
One of four alternatives: a higher-education qualification of at least three years, or a post-secondary professional qualification of at least three years or at level 6 of the national qualifications framework; the requirements of D.Lgs. 206/2007, for a profession regulated in Italy; five years of professional experience at a level comparable to a tertiary qualification; or, for the specific occupational groups the article names, three years of relevant experience in the seven before the application. A contract or binding offer of at least six months is required on every one of them.
Nulla osta
Within thirty days of the employer's application
Contratto di soggiorno
Within fifteen days of entering Italy
Long-stay visa (type D)
€116 in the consular fee table, collected in local currency where the consulate charges it
Permit contribution
€40 for a permit of more than three months up to one year, €50 for more than one year up to two
Filing the permit at the post office
€16 revenue stamp, €30 to the post office and €30.46 for producing the card, on top of the contribution
Everything about EU Blue Card (Carta blu UE) →
The procedure, step by step8 steps · 3 possible outcomes
  1. Check which of the qualification tests you meet, because the paperwork follows from it. On a degree, or on the requirements of a regulated profession, the file needs the consulate's dichiarazione di valore or CIMEA's statement of comparability and authenticity. On experience, the evidence is a statement from your employer backed by employment contracts or payslips.
  2. Get the pay right in the contract. It may not be lower than the national collective agreement for the job, and in any case not lower than the average gross annual pay as measured by ISTAT.No figure in euros is published here. The statute and the 2024 circular both point to the ISTAT indicator and neither prints an amount, and the Interior Ministry pages where one would be set out could not be read. Ask the Sportello Unico or the employer's adviser for the amount in force on the date of the application.
  3. Have every document issued outside the EU legalised or apostilled, and translated into Italian.
  4. Your employer files the nulla osta application with the Sportello Unico per l'Immigrazione online, through the Interior Ministry's portal, with a SPID digital identity or an electronic identity card. The Blue Card article runs the application through article 22, which has the employer first check with the Centro per l'impiego that no worker already in Italy is available.The Blue Card article waives that check in one case only: where you already hold a permit issued for highly qualified work.
  5. The Sportello Unico issues the nulla osta, or communicates the rejection, within thirty days of the application.Employers that have signed a protocol with the Interior Ministry replace the nulla osta with a communication, after which the Questore issues the permit within thirty days.
  6. Apply for the entry visa at the Italian consulate with the nulla osta. The visa is valid for as long as the nulla osta authorises, and no more than 365 days.
  7. Within fifteen days of entering Italy, go to the Sportello Unico to sign the contratto di soggiorno and collect the permit application form, which you send from an authorised post office. The permit is requested within eight working days of entry.
  8. For the first twelve months you may work only in jobs that meet the conditions you were admitted on, and changing employer in that period needs prior authorisation. If no opinion arrives within fifteen days, it is deemed given.

Possible outcomes

  • A Blue Card for two years on an open-ended contract, or for the contract plus three months otherwise, outside any quota.
  • A rejection of the nulla osta, communicated to the employer within the same thirty days.
  • Twelve months in which a change of employer needs prior authorisation.

Salaried work within the annual quotas (decreto flussi)

The Sportello Unico per l'Immigrazione at the prefecture, on an application the employer files on the click day; then the Italian consulate and the Questura

Checklist
Qualification
No qualification level is set. What is tested is the employer and the job: a prior check with the Centro per l'impiego that no worker already in Italy is available, an employer with taxable income or turnover of at least €30,000 a year, and an application filed within the quota for its sector.
Centro per l'impiego check
Eight calendar days without an available worker
Click day, 2026
From 9:00 on 16 February 2026, until quota places run out or 31 December 2026
Long-stay visa (type D)
€116 in the consular fee table, collected in local currency where the consulate charges it
Permit contribution
€40 for a permit of more than three months up to one year, €50 for more than one year up to two
Filing the permit at the post office
€16 revenue stamp, €30 to the post office and €30.46 for producing the card, on top of the contribution
Everything about Salaried work within the annual quotas (decreto flussi) →
The procedure, step by step6 steps · 3 possible outcomes
  1. Your employer checks with the Centro per l'impiego that no worker already in Italy is available for the job. If the centre does not report an available worker within eight calendar days, the check counts as negative and the application can go ahead.
  2. The employer needs taxable income, or turnover for a company, of at least €30,000 a year, and an asseverazione of the application, which is waived when it is filed through an organisation that has signed the relevant protocol. A private employer may file at most three nulla osta applications a year.
  3. The employer files the application online on the click day. For non-seasonal salaried work in 2026 that was 9:00 on 16 February, after a pre-filling window that ran from 23 October to 7 December 2025, and applications can be filed until 31 December 2026 while quota places remain.Applications are ranked by the time they were sent on the click day. One that gets no quota place lapses six months after 31 December. The dates for 2027 and 2028 were not found published when this was read.
  4. The procedure has an overall deadline of sixty days, counted from the day the application is assigned a quota place, not from the day it was filed. The nulla osta is valid for up to six months, and the employer confirms the application within fifteen days.
  5. Apply for the visa at the Italian consulate with the nulla osta. For salaried work within the quotas, the Foreign Ministry's deadline for issuing it is 30 days.
  6. Within fifteen days of entering Italy, sign the contratto di soggiorno at the Sportello Unico, where you also collect the permit form to send from an authorised post office. You may work on the nulla osta while the contract is being signed.

Possible outcomes

  • A nulla osta, a visa and a permit for salaried work tied to the employer that applied.
  • No quota place: the application is ranked by time of submission and lapses if the quota for its sector is exhausted before it is reached.
  • A rejection of the nulla osta within the sixty-day deadline.

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

The Sportello Unico per l'Immigrazione at the prefecture, on an application filed by the hiring health facility

Checklist
Qualification
A nursing qualification recognised by the Italian Ministry of Health, and a job with a public or private health facility.
When to apply
At any time of the year: the route is outside the quotas
Everything about Out-of-quota entry for nurses (article 27, letter r-bis) →
The procedure, step by step3 steps · 2 possible outcomes
  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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Possible outcomes

  • A nulla osta for work at a health facility, outside the annual quotas.
  • No route at all on this letter without the ministry's recognition decree, or the regional derogation while it lasts.

Recognition procedure

What the authority asks of you.

Ordered the way the procedure runs, from an origin outside the EU and EEA. Pick your own country of qualification below and the planner reorders it for you.

1

Prepare your documents

  1. Request certified copies of your degree and full academic transcripts from the Indian university or board that issued them.
  2. The Apostille Convention has been in force for India since 14 July 2005, so an apostille replaces consular legalisation. An Indian educational document cannot go straight to the apostille, though: it is authenticated first by the Regional Authentication Centre of the State or Union Territory whose authority signed it, and the Ministry of External Affairs apostilles it afterwards on the strength of that signature.Which office acts as the RAC, what it charges and how long it takes are set by each State or Union Territory, not by the MEA.
  3. Since July 2012 the MEA has not accepted documents directly from applicants. They go through one of the four authorised outsourced agencies — BLS International Services, Superb Enterprises, IVS Global Services or Alhind Tours & Travels — and since 1 January 2019 the service also runs from Branch Secretariats and Regional Passport Offices in 16 cities.The MEA advises applicants not to rely on unauthorised persons or touts. Nobody outside those channels can lodge an apostille for you.
  4. If your certificate already sits in an Indian digital depository — CBSE documents from 2014 onwards, or anything issued through the National Academic Depository — e-Sanad handles the apostille online and the physical route does not apply. CBSE physical copies from 2014 onwards are no longer accepted over the counter.
  5. An apostille certifies the signature and seal of the Indian authority that signed your document. It says nothing about what the document contains: the MEA states explicitly that it does not take responsibility for the contents.It is a check on the paperwork, never a statement about the level or the content of your qualification.
  6. Gather the documents in Annex D2-1: your nursing qualification and the certificate of studies, authenticated, with the hours of theory and of practice; the original dichiarazione di valore issued by the Italian embassy or consulate in the country that awarded the qualification; a certificate of good standing and a criminal record certificate, both originals no older than three months; and a signed CV.Documents are accepted legalised by the Italian consulate or with an apostille under the 1961 Hague Convention, and translated with a translation certified by the Italian consulate or sworn before an Italian court. Simple copies with a self-declaration are accepted only from EU citizens.
2

Get your qualification assessed

  1. Look your profession up in the official list of regulated professions on the Impresa in un giorno portal. Each entry names the competent authority and describes the activities the profession covers.
  2. For a regulated profession, apply to the ministry that supervises it, which is the authority D.Lgs. 206/2007 makes competent. A qualification obtained outside the EU can be put forward from abroad: recognition may also be requested by foreigners not living in Italy.The Department for European Policies at the Prime Minister's office is Italy's national coordinator and its assistance centre for the recognition of professional qualifications. It advises; the decision is the ministry's.
  3. For a profession that is not regulated, there is nothing to apply for. CIMEA, Italy's ENIC-NARIC centre, states that anyone holding a foreign qualification who wants to work in a non-regulated profession in Italy does not need legal or formal recognition of it to enter the labour market, and that the employer is the one who assesses it.
  4. Send the application, with a €16 revenue stamp per qualification, to the Ministry of Health, by post or by hand at its office in Rome. You do not have to be in Italy: recognition may also be requested by foreigners not living there, and entry to Italy for health work is in any case conditional on it.
  5. The ministry decides within four months of receiving the complete documentation. Its decree recognises the qualification, recognises it subject to a compensation measure, or refuses it.
3

Close any gaps

  1. If a compensation measure is required, it is an aptitude test or an adaptation period, and for a qualification from outside the EU the authority chooses which. FNOPI says it is carried out in a university nursing school; the ministry runs aptitude test sessions open only to those who received the decree assigning the measure.If you are abroad when the measure is assigned, DPR 394/1999 provides for a study visa for the time needed to complete it.
4

Register and start working

  1. Register with the OPI, the nursing order, of your province. FNOPI states that enrolment in the register is compulsory to practise, and that foreign nationals may be registered when they meet the requirements and comply with Italy's entry and residence rules.
  2. Register within two years of the recognition decree. Under DPR 394/1999, once that period passes the decree loses its effect.
  3. Know the temporary exception, and what it is not. Until 31 December 2029 the law allows temporary practice at public or private health and social-care facilities on a qualification obtained abroad, in derogation from the recognition rules. It runs through the regions: you file a request with the region, with a certificate of registration in the register of your home country, and the region may recruit you temporarily. You then notify the competent order of the regional derogation and the facility you work at; failing that, the derogation is suspended.It is not a recognition: it is regional, temporary and tied to the facility. The statutes disagree on its end date. Article 15 of DL 34/2023, as amended by the 2026 budget law, says 31 December 2029; article 6-bis of DL 105/2021, whose procedure applies while the State-Regions agreements are pending, still reads 31 December 2027. Ask the region which date it applies.
  4. Pass the exam the provincial OPI sets before it registers you. For EU nationals it checks Italian only; for non-EU nationals it checks Italian and also the rules governing nursing practice in Italy and professional ethics. FNOPI states the exam is written and oral.No national level is set and no national fee: each OPI sets its own exam fee, at the applicant's expense. The exam comes after the ministry's decree, never before it.

What it costs

MEA apostille
Rs 50 per apostille sticker
Authorised agency service charge
Rs 84 per document, plus Rs 3 per page for scanning
State authentication before the apostille
Set by the State or Union Territory that authenticates the document — confirm the current fee with the relevant RAC
Recognition in a regulated profession
Set per profession by the deciding ministry; Italy publishes no single national figure
Application to the Ministry of Health
€16 revenue stamp per qualification
OPI exam
Set by each provincial OPI, at the applicant's expense
Dichiarazione di valore, translations and apostille
Charged by the consulate, the translator and the issuing country; no single figure

How long it takes

Completeness check
The authority checks the file within thirty days of receiving it
Decision
Within three months of the complete documentation, and four months for the professions in chapters II and III of title III of D.Lgs. 206/2007
Ministry decision
Four months from complete documentation
Registration after the decree
Within two years, or the decree lapses

Possible outcomes

  • A decree recognising your qualification, after which you take the OPI exam and register.
  • Recognition subject to a compensation measure, an aptitude test or an adaptation period chosen by the authority.
  • A refusal.

Possible, not predicted. Nobody here can tell you which one you will get.

Where you qualified

The answer changes
with your country.

Everything we cover →

Qualified outside the EU and EEA — permit required

Colombia → ItalyOpen this roadmapArgentina → ItalyOpen this roadmapIndia → ItalyOpen this roadmapPhilippines → ItalyOpen this roadmapNigeria → ItalyOpen this roadmapBrazil → ItalyOpen this roadmapMexico → ItalyOpen this roadmapVenezuela → ItalyOpen this roadmap

Qualified inside the EU or EEA — free movement applies

Spain → ItalyDifferent answerGermany → ItalyDifferent answerNetherlands → ItalyDifferent answer

People reach this page looking for

  • Italy nursing license for Indian nurses
  • riconoscimento titolo infermiere Ministero della Salute
  • dichiarazione di valore for nursing in Italy
  • OPI exam for foreign nurses
  • Italy work visa for nurses outside the decreto flussi

Questions

Answered from the same sources.

Is general care nurse a regulated profession in Italy?

Yes. Regulated · non-EU qualifications are assessed case by case. The decision is made by Ministry of Health (Ministero della Salute), which recognises the qualification; then the provincial OPI (Ordine delle Professioni Infermieristiche), which registers you.

Which authority recognises a foreign general care nurse qualification in Italy?

Ministry of Health (Ministero della Salute), which recognises the qualification; then the provincial OPI (Ordine delle Professioni Infermieristiche), which registers you. Two separate acts. The ministry's decree says your qualification is valid in Italy; registration with the provincial OPI is what lets you practise, and FNOPI states that enrolment in the register is compulsory for nursing practice. The ministry's form for EU citizens warns, in general terms, that practising a health profession in Italy before it recognises the qualification is a criminal offence.

Which work permits can a general care nurse apply for in Italy?

We have sourced 3: EU Blue Card (Carta blu UE), Salaried work within the annual quotas (decreto flussi), Out-of-quota entry for nurses (article 27, letter r-bis). Each one has its own conditions, and this page compares them side by side rather than recommending one.

Do you need your degree recognised for a Italy work permit?

Some routes ask for academic comparability, which is not the same thing as professional recognition. Statement of comparability and authenticity of a foreign degree, or a dichiarazione di valore from the consulate is issued by CIMEA (Centro di Informazione sulla Mobilità e le Equivalenze Accademiche), Italy's ENIC-NARIC centre — or the Italian consulate, through a dichiarazione di valore. The permit pages above say which routes require it.

How long does the process take?

Completeness check: The authority checks the file within thirty days of receiving it. Decision: Within three months of the complete documentation, and four months for the professions in chapters II and III of title III of D.Lgs. 206/2007. Ministry decision: Four months from complete documentation. Registration after the decree: Within two years, or the decree lapses. These are the timeframes the authorities publish, not a prediction about your case.

Is this page up to date?

The oldest source behind it was checked on 2026-08-03. Every claim links to the official page it came from, with its own check date, so you can verify any of it yourself in one click.

Evidence

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

37 official pages, each with the jurisdiction it speaks for and the date a human last opened it. The oldest of them is 2026-08-03, and that is the date this page is only as fresh as.

Two minutes, no account

Your qualification, your country, your roadmap.

This page answers the pairing in general. The planner answers it for the country you actually qualified in, and prints the result with its sources attached.

Build my roadmap →How we verify this