Hurray! You’ve successfully completed your study and graduated in Italy. So what next? If your plan is to stay back in Milan or Italy to look for a job or live in Italy, the government has made a provision for you.
The Permesso di Soggiorno per Attesa Occupazione also called “Atessa di Lavoro” gives a one year grace period to new graduates who are not Europeans to search for a job.
Permesso di Soggiorno per Attesa Occupazione can literally be translated as “Permit for waiting for a job” or more sensibly -searching for a job, the permesso which is usually valid for one year allows you to live legally in Italy and still travel within the Schengen Area (if your status allows).
To apply for the Permesso per Atessa di Lavoro, you must have graduated from your studies and gotten your certificate or a self-certification signed by your school. You may be able to get a self-certification from your student dashboard – if you are a student from Unimi for example.
I applied for a Permesso di Soggiorno per Attesa Occupazione a while ago so I will be walking you through the steps I took:
- Enrolled at the Centro per l’impiego for a document called “Dichiarazione di Immediata Disponibilita”
- Picked up a permesso di soggiorno kit at the post office
- Bought Marca da bollo (stamp) of 16EUR from the tabbacheria
- Printed self certicate from student dashboard, got it stamped and signed by my school.
- Printed my bank statement of account
- Made coloured photocopies of old permesso di soggiorno
- I didn’t need to purchase a health insurance
- Filled the permesso di soggiorno kit and included a copy of all documents mentioned above.
- Submitted the kit at the Poste Italiane and paid 30.46EUR postal fee and permesso renewal fee of 40EUR.
If you find a job while you are still holding the Permesso di Soggiorno per Attesa Occupazione, you can start working right away (I could). You can choose to convert the Permesso di Atessa Lavoro to Lavoro immediately or towards the end of its expiration.
In some cases your employer will handle the whole process for you hence you did not need to do so yourself but only provide the required documents.
Note that this process doesn’t apply to students who have graduated from summer or language schools. If you have not graduated from a private or public institution as a PhD, Masters or Bachelors degree holder, you may not be eligible for this conversion.
Instead, you will need to apply for a Nulla Osta and apply for conversion through the flow decree published yearly by the government. To follow this process, you need to act fast to ensure you get a chance before the quota gets filled up. This is always better and easier if your company applies on your behalf as its a quite tedious process, especially if you don’t speak Italian and you are not familiar with the bureaucratic process.
The maximum quota of subordinate, seasonal and non-seasonal non-EU workers and self-employed workers who were able to enter Italy last year was set at 12,850 quotas for non-seasonal, self-employed and conversions, distributed between entries of non-EU citizens who have completed training and education programs in the countries of origin; workers of Italian origin residing in Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela and Brazil; and of non-EU citizens for self-employment; conversions of residence permits already held for other reasons into residence permits for subordinate work and for self-employment.
You would also find the Quarami App useful when going to the Centro l’impiego, especially the one called “AFOL Metropolitana Employment center” at Via Piero Strozzi, 11, 20146 Milano MI.
I hope this helps, if you have questions, drop them in the comment box.
Hi Hellen,
I have seen many queries you have solved. I appreciate. I completed my Master degree on March 2022 . My permesso di soggerno has valid until July 2022. Mean time i came to India,i was undergoing a medical treatment. Due to that i cannot able to travel immediately. Now it’s been concluded. I would like to extend my Permit for job search. May i know how to proceed for it . Looking forward to hear from you soon.Have a good day.
Yes you can just go to Centro I impiego and ask for it.
Hello Hellen!
Thanks for the support and effort put in this article!
I have to ask you in case you might know better.
I got accepted in a job but I still didn’t graduate from Politecnico di Milano. I signed with the company a “lettera d’impegno” but then they realized they can’t do a contract with my study permit. Is there any way to fix that? Maybe with the Nulla Osta is too late now i guess?
Thanks in advance!
Hello, thank you for this blog, it was really useful!
I wanted to know how much money do you need to show in your account for the Permesso di Soggiorno per Attesa Occupazione. And also I went through website of AFOL Metropolitana Employment center and couldn’t find any way through which I can book an appointment. Can we walk in and get the DID made? Or if you can provide me with any contact details of the same, would be really helpful.
Hi, I wanted to ask if in the centro per l’impiego or if throughout the process it was mandatory to have the residency and other documents like the carta d’identita, spid, etc…
Hi there! Thank you for all the useful info! I have a question in regards to switching your permesso per attesta occupazione to a work permit. I stupidly forgot to apply for the DID when applying for the permesso per attesta occupazione but to my surprise, the police station issued me the permesso. I didn’t question it but now am starting to worry a bit. Was the DID needed when you switched your permesso per attesta occupazione to a work permit? I don’t know if I should just leave it be or work backwards and now apply for a DID, even though I physically have the permesso. Any help would be really appreciated!
Hi! I also have the same issue like below where my permesso will expire 3 days after my thesis defense (& graduation) and I wanted to apply for this permit earlier than my study finishes. When you say you use a “self certification”, do you mean requesting a document stating that you have finished your studies or is it a different document?
Also I saw that you didn’t need to purchase health insurance, does this mean you will live here without health insurance?
Thank you before, looking forward to your reply 🙂
Hi Dita,
Yes it’s a certificate you can print from your student area or ask your university to provide. I didn’t need to purchase a health insurance as it wasn’t a prerequisite to apply for the permesso attesa occupazione. Anyway I often use private medical services when I need to.
Hi there,
I am graduating on 31/03/2021 and on the same day my students soggiorno expires. As I know ,In order to apply for DID with employment centre a valid permit is required .My question is can I apply for DID if my soggiorno expires and graduation is finished or can I give an early request to the employment centre to give DID ?
You can get the DID with a self certification via your student portal, if your school gives that. I remember I did mine using that without issues. I hope this helps.
Hello
I did my fingerprint recently for attesa occupazione permesso in firenze but the problem is that non of my friends delivered health insurance but they asked me to do it and send to them. Do you have any idea what can i do?
Hi Joseph. From experience, you are not supposed to deliver an health insurance. Maybe you can go to the questura to clarify this and explain you’ve applied for attesa occupazione, and hence do not need it. Many times the official one meets is not aware of this.
Hi I have got attessa di lavro from Cliclevero padua with DID currently I’m enrolled in university with student premesso di saggorno my degree not completed yet so can I eligible to apply attessa di levero premesso at this position
Hi Hafeez,
From experience, you need the certificate or certification issued by your university that you’ve completed your courses (which may be available in your student area). You will need to provide the certificate/certification along with the DID when applying for the permesso.
I GOT MASTER FROM A PRIVATE SCHOOL .ITS A 1 YEAR PROGRAM IN HUMAN RESOURCE AM I ELIGIBLE FOR ATTESO DI LAVORO.MY FINGER PRINT IS IN THE MONTH OF OCT AND BY BEFORE THE DATE I FINISHED MY COURSE .WHAT WILL BE MY NEXT STEP
Hi. Thanks for your reply to the previous comment. I went to the centro per l’impiego and they asked me for carta di identita which i did not know about. I provided them with my passport, permesso di soggiorno and graduation letter but they said it is not possible to get the DID form without carta di identita. Do you have any idea how to resolve this?
Hi Alex. I do have a carta d’identità. I’ve made a post on how to apply for a residence certificate, with which you will use to apply for a carta d’identità.
May I know what are the documents that you provided to the centro per l’impiego to get the letter? And did you fill both the Module A & B permesso di soggiorno kit?
Hi Alex,
You will need to prove you have graduated.
Then I also had my passport and permesso with me.
I will advise going with all your documents just in case you need to provide any other information.
For the module, I only filled the A.
Hello, I have one question. My permesso is going to expire on 8th October 2020. So after how many days I can still apply for attesa occupazione. Can i apply after expiring and if so after how many days ? and if before expiring then how many days before ? Thanks 🙏🏽😊
Hi Jaswant. I wrote about that here: https://www.girlinmilan.com/solution-for-expired-permesso-di-soggiorno/
Under the heading “What should you do if you have an expired permesso di soggiorno?”