Training abroad and priority entry: hiring under Italy's article 23

Article 23 of Legislative Decree 286/1998 allows an Italian employer to hire workers who have completed an approved vocational and civic language training programme in their home country. Graduates of an approved course enter outside the decreto flussi quotas and hold a priority title, the titolo di prelazione, for work entry.

What the priority title is and who approves the programmes

The provision dates from 1998 but was rewritten by Decree Law 20/2023, converted into Law 50/2023, to turn it into a working entry route rather than a theoretical one. The reasoning is straightforward: the State accepts that a person trained before departure, in both the trade and the Italian language, arrives ready for the job. In exchange that entry does not consume quota.

Programmes are not self certified. According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, approval rests with an interministerial commission coordinated by the Ministry of Labour, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education and Merit, the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Regions Conference. Operating guidance is set out in Ministerial Directive no. 27 of 7 July 2023. A course run abroad by a provider that has not obtained commission approval produces no priority title, however solid its teaching.

An approved programme must combine vocational training on the trade itself with civic and language training covering Italian and the rights and duties of an employee. In practice an employer using this route does not start from a job advert. It starts from a training provider already inside an approved programme for the country it intends to hire from.

The timeline, next to the ordinary flows decree

The deadlines under article 23, as published by the Ministry of Labour, are tighter than those on the ordinary route. The work authorisation, the nulla osta, is issued within 30 days, with silent approval once that period expires. The entry visa can be requested within 12 months of the end of the course and is issued within 90 days of the request. After entry, the residence contract is signed within 15 days.

For anyone planning a hire, the first two rows are the point. Under the flows decree the submission window lasts hours and the quotas empty immediately, as the split in Italy's decreto flussi quotas from 2026 to 2028 shows. Under article 23 the course sets the calendar, not the government. The price is that the course has to be organised and approved far in advance, often a year before the intended arrival.

On cost, the provision adds no state fee for the employer beyond the ordinary charges on the nulla osta file and the visa. The real cost is the training: trade instructors, Italian lessons, premises and certification in the country of origin, all borne by whoever runs the programme. It earns its place against a repeating need, twenty welders a year for three years, rather than a single hire. What follows arrival is the same as on the ordinary route, starting with the residence contract and set against the sequence in the nulla osta route.

Where the advantage is lost

The most expensive mistake is letting the 12 month window lapse. The priority title arises when the course ends and runs for a fixed period. An employer who identifies the worker thirteen months after training finished is back on the ordinary route, waiting for the next flows decree round like everyone else. For a cohort trained in stages this means keeping a register of completion dates per student, not one date for the course.

The second failure point is programme approval. An employer funds a course with a credible foreign provider and learns afterwards that the programme was not among those approved by the interministerial commission, or that approval covered a different intake year. The result is training that is technically useful and legally worthless for entry. Check approval before students enrol, against the exact programme and the exact intake year.

For an Italian employer with a steady need in one trade, article 23 takes hiring out of the quota lottery and puts it back on a calendar the employer can manage. It asks for a year of lead time and for the training provider to be chosen before the worker. Our employers page explains how we set up a training programme in the country of origin before a corridor opens.