Edoardo Bonatti
18 gennaio 2018
The Italian government published on the “Gazzetta ufficiale” the Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers which regulates foreign citizens’ access to Italy for the year 2018. The decree, also known as “decreto flussi” establishes both the maximum number of potential entry applicants and the distribution of them by visa type.
In Article 1, the overall number of regular immigrants is capped at 30,850; of them, 12,850 are reserved for non-seasonal, subordinate and self-employed workers which are looking to immigrate to Italy (Article 2); the remaining 18,000 are, on the other hand, allocated to seasonal workers (Article 4). When referring to the first quota the decree also contemplates the potential conversion of the visa in residence permits, both for subordinated workers and self-employed ones.
Article 3 is of particular interest as it addresses the regulation of self-employed workers. Entry to Italy will be permitted to 2,400 non-EU citizens resident abroad, belonging to the following categories: businessmen, freelancers, holders of corporate administration’s offices, artists of clear renown and foreigners looking to establish innovative start-ups in Italy. Businessmen are defined as someone who is willing to implement an investment plan of interest for the Italian economy, which involves the use of own resources, from legitimate sources, amounting at least to € 500,000, as well as the creation of at least three new jobs. This highlight Italy’s desire to attract qualified immigration that can benefit the country’s economic outlook: in fact, the decree is also reserving quotas for migrants which completed formation programs in their home countries.
According to Article 5, the application procedures will be available since seven days after the publishing on the “Gazzetta ufficiale”, dated 16 January.
With this provision, the Government reaffirms its commitment to regulating immigration to Italy as it was already evident with last year’s “decreto flussi” which saw its content concerning self-employed workers and businessmen confirmed.
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