Case: Joel is a Mexican national who has been living in Italy for the past 2 years and worked, on the basis of a work permit for subordinate work, in the transport industry for an Italian company active in this sector. Due to unexpected losses in revenues and the subsequent financial distress, the Italian company was forced to let go many of its employees, including Joel, who now finds himself unemployed and in search for a new job which would allow him to apply for the renewal of his work permit, which is due to expire in less than 4 months.
Question: what are the options for Joel to keep an Italian residence permit that would allow him to remain in Italy and start looking for other job opportunities with other Italian companies, even after the expiration of his current work permit for subordinate work?
Solution: Considering that Joel has recenty been fired by the Italian employer he used to work for, that he holds a valid Italian subordinate work permit, which is about to expire, and that he has not yet received any job offer which would allow him to renew his current work permit, he might find particularly interesting and appealing the possibility of applying for the so-called “Job-searching” residence permit (permesso di soggiorno per attesa occupazione).
According to Italian immigration law, third-country nationals who hold a residence permit for work purposes and have lost their job can apply for and obtain the aforementioned residence permit per attesa occupazione only on the condition that they have declared, within and not later than 40 days after the interruption of their work relationship, their immediate availabilty to sign an employment agreement (dichiarazione di immediata disponibilità al lavoro), by registering with the placement lists (liste di collocamento) of the Employment Centre (Centro per l’impiego) of the Italian city where they are residing.
Therefore, having registered with the placements lists above is a mandatory condition in order for Joel to be entitled to receive a job-searching residence permit. Furthermore, once duly registered with the competent Employment Centre, his name will remain in the central data base of the public office and he will be reached out to in case any suitable job opportunities arises.
After the registration procedure with the Employment Center is duly completed, Joel will be allowed to apply for the issuance of the job-searching residence permit, by sending the so-called postal kit throught any Post office, submitting all the necessary documents expressly required by the law, among which the most crucial are:
- Joel’s current residence permit for subordinate work purposes;
- proof of registration with the placements lists of the competent Italian Employment Centre;
- proof of availability of accomodation (lease agreement or real estate ownership);
- certificate of registration with the Municipality where Joel is residing (certificato di iscrizione anagrafica); and
- proof of the availability of adequate financial resources, deriving from legal sources, to sustain himself and meet his needs in Italy.
Joel’s final work permit will be issued with an initial duration not shorter than 12 months. Should Joel enter into an employment agreement with an Italian employer during such 12-month period, he will have to convert his job-searching residence permit into a standard subordinate work permit, by following the specific procedure provided for by Italian immigration law.
In the case in which Joel does not enter into any employment agreement within the period of duration of his residence permit per attesa occupazione, he will be entitled to apply for a renewal. In fact, a recent bulletin issued in 2016 by the Italian Minister of the Interior expressly introduced the possibility for third country unemployed nationals to renew their job-searching residence permits, for further periods of one year, on the condition that they can prove the availability of sufficient financial resources for an amount not lower than 9.000,00 (nine thousand) Euros.