Every autumn, thousands of nulla osta approvals move seasonal workers into Italy's hotels, restaurants and resorts through the Decreto Flussi, the annual quota system that decides how many non-EU workers can legally take up hospitality jobs each year. In February 2026, Italy's Ministry of Labour published the breakdown for this year's tourism sector allocation: 15,075 seasonal slots, distributed by region and by category of applicant.
Most of that total follows a familiar pattern. Around 4,875 slots are reserved for workers from countries that have signed migration cooperation agreements with Italy, with a small share held back at the national level for countries whose applications don't reach regional thresholds on their own. Another 5,000 slots move through national employer associations recognized by the Ministry of Tourism, and 4,700 are open to applications filed directly by individual hotels, restaurants and other private employers.
A Small Quota With an Outsized Idea
The detail worth pausing on sits in the smallest slice of the allocation: 500 slots set aside for what's called a nulla osta pluriennale, a multi-year work clearance. Instead of forcing an employer and a returning seasonal worker to restart the full authorization process from zero every single year, this mechanism lets the same worker come back for multiple consecutive seasons under one approval. There's a built-in incentive attached to it too: workers who respect the terms of their permit and return home when the season ends earn a right of priority the following year.
For an industry where a hotel's best server or a restaurant's most reliable line cook is often a seasonal hire, that continuity matters more than the number suggests. Training a new team member every spring carries a real cost, in time, in consistency of service, and in the small things a guest notices, like a waiter who already knows the menu without a script. A quota that lets an employer keep the same trusted person across seasons is a quiet but practical fix for a problem hospitality businesses feel every year.
There's a deadline tucked into the rules that's worth flagging too. Once a region's quota is assigned, the ministry can reallocate whatever goes unused after 50 days. Employers who wait too long to move an application forward risk losing the slot to another region entirely, so timing the paperwork early in the window pays off far more than treating it as a formality to handle later.
It's exactly this kind of procedural detail, easy to miss in a government note but decisive for whether a hire actually arrives on time, that we spend most of our days on at ItalianExperience. We help hospitality employers abroad identify and vet Italian talent early, and walk both sides through the nulla osta and visa steps so a returning worker, or a first-time one, is ready the moment a quota opens.
Data referenced from Italy's Ministry of Labour and Social Policies (note 423 of February 9, 2026) and reporting by Fisco e Tasse on the 2026 Decreto Flussi tourism sector quotas.
The best hire isn't always a new one. Sometimes it's the one who already knows how you like your dining room run, and just needs the paperwork to catch up.