Agency processing scores 10, the minimum in the index. Of the 127,707 quota places for 2023, 9,528 people reached an actual permit a year later, which is 7.5 percent.
red flagThe substance of Italian rules is generous. Losing a job does not cost you your status, an employment permit is not tied to one employer, family members can work at once, the income bar for reunification is low, and children go to school whatever their status. Labour quotas are growing: about half a million places for 2026-2028.
Delivery is where it breaks, worse than almost anywhere in our sample. The main work route is an annual lottery: of 127,707 quota places in 2023, 16,188 reached a contract and 9,528, or 7.5%, had an actual permit a year later. In 2024 and 2025 the figure was about 8%. Until 2026 click day was plagued by fraud; employer pre-registration is now being introduced. After arrival, the fingerprint appointment at the questura takes 2-8 months, and the legal 60 days for issuing the permit are not met.
We found no pressure on foreigners working legally: the harsh rhetoric and tightening target irregular sea arrivals. The only retroactive tightening in two years concerns citizenship by descent: Law 74/2025 narrowed it for people who had not yet applied or been recognised, and the Constitutional Court upheld it on 12 March 2026. Ordinary naturalisation was not touched, and the 2025 referendum on cutting the wait to 5 years failed on turnout.
Status is reliable after job loss: you register with the job centre and get a job-seeking permit for at least a year, with the right to sign new contracts. If you file a renewal on time, the receipt keeps your right to live and work until the decision.
Day to day, bank accounts open with a codice fiscale tax code but with friction: non-residents get limited accounts, and some banks refuse certain nationalities. Registering your residence is needed for healthcare and an ID card and includes an inspector checking the address. Degree recognition takes months.
The index score ignores nationality. This is what changes for citizens of specific countries.
No visa for up to 90 days within 180, as in the rest of the Schengen area. Employment goes through the general quota, remote work through the nomad visa.
18,000 of the 164,850 quota places for 2026 are reserved for them. The list has 39 countries, including Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Serbia, Albania, India, the Philippines, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Japan.
No permit needed at all: EU free movement gives the right to live and work, and quotas and labour market tests do not apply.
EU temporary protection is extended to 4 March 2028. Since 31 July 2026 new applicants must show they left in line with their military obligations; people who already hold the status are not affected. Ukraine is also on the list of countries with a migration cooperation agreement, so its citizens get a separate, less competitive share of the work quotas.
We found no direct nationality bans. Neither country is on the list with a reserved quota, so their citizens compete only for the general one. According to complaints, some banks refuse accounts to Russian citizens; there is no systematic ban.
The place interval 72-77 shows where the country lands when the data is nudged and the index is recalculated. One place of difference in the table means nothing; a difference of a league means something.
Red flagOne of the three core categories, how the agencies work, pressure on newcomers or the reliability of status, has fallen below the critical mark. The score is capped: a disaster in the core is not cured by comforts at the edges.
The thin mark on each bar is the average across 97 countries
The strongest category here is Family rights: 92 out of 100, against a 97-state average of 72.2. The weakest is Agency processing: 10 against 48.7. Above the world average: 4 out of 7.
All 97 states are calculated for one applicant: 35 years old, income of $2,500 and $3,856 a month before tax, passport not counted, the most accessible route that is actually in use.
Your passport, your income and your family do not change the table. They change which of its lines apply to you. A different income makes entry read differently, a family makes the family category read differently, and your passport makes everything read differently.
By law 60 days for issue and renewal. In practice 2-6 months in mid-sized cities and 12 months or more in Rome, Milan, Naples and Turin, mostly because of the wait for a fingerprint appointment.
Yes, through the digital nomad visa: income of at least €24,789 a year, a degree or qualification and six months of remote-work experience. Elective residence for people with passive income also exists, but it bars work.
State fees are €70.46-130.46 per cycle depending on the permit's length. A family of three (two adults and a child on a parent's permit) pays about €483 over five years.
Losing a job does not cost you your status: you can get a job-seeking permit for at least a year. If you file your renewal on time, you may keep living and working until the decision.
EU long-term permit after 5 years, with an A2 Italian test. Citizenship after 10 years of legal residence, with Italian at B1; dual citizenship is allowed.
The rules are generous: free change of employer, a year to find new work, full family rights. Delivery is the problem: quotas work like a lottery, only 7-8% of places end in a real permit, and questure take months to issue documents.
97 states, 26 indicators, seven categories, 2,522 scores. Every score has a source and a source class: primary means the texts of laws and government portals; reliable secondary means reports by international organisations, tax reviews by audit firms and specialist legal publications; weak means community posts and single secondary sources. The classes add up to a confidence level for the country, and a country with low confidence gets neither a score nor a place.
Every indicator is scored against a fixed ruler, not against its neighbours. Adding new countries therefore does not move the old ones, and a change in a score means a change in policy and nothing else.
A high place does not mean a good country. It means one thing: the state machine treats newcomers predictably and by the rules. Living there may be expensive, dull or hot; that is not our question.
Checked 01/10/2026. Facts come from the country's index card and official websites.
We make mistakes and we will go on making them: policy changes faster than any database. Our answer is not a pose of infallibility but a visible trail of corrections. Every correction is published: what it was, what it became, the source and the reason for the error. The corrections log opens with the second issue, together with the first block of changes.