9 Easy Steps to Convert Student Permit to Permesso di Soggiorno per Attesa Occupazione

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:

1. Enrolled at the Centro per l’impiego for a document called “Dichiarazione di Immediata Disponibilita”
2. Picked up a permesso di soggiorno kit at the post office
3. Bought Marca da bollo (stamp) of 16EUR from the tabbacheria
4. Printed self certicate from student dashboard, got it stamped and signed by my school.
5. Printed my bank statement of account
6. Made coloured photocopies of old permesso di soggiorno
7. I didn’t need to purchase a health insurance
8. Filled the permesso di soggiorno kit and included a copy of all documents mentioned above.
9. 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.