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 “Attesa di Lavoro” or Residence permit for pending employment in English gives a one-year grace period to new graduates, who are non-Europeans, to search for a job and stay in Italy.
What’s inside?
What is a Permesso di Soggiorno per Attesa Occupazione?
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) while searching for a job.
Who can apply for a Permesso di Soggiorno per Attesa Occupazione?
To apply for the Permesso per Attesa 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 the University of Milan, for example.
Steps I took to apply for Permesso di Soggiorno per Attesa Occupazione
- 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-certificate from my student dashboard, and 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 a Permesso renewal fee of 40EUR.
How to easily book your appointment at Centro l’impiego
Download the Quarami App on your mobile. You would also find it useful when going to the Centro l’impiego, especially the one called “AFOL Metropolitana Employment Center” at Via Piero Strozzi, 11, 20146 Milano MI.
Can you work with your Permesso di Soggiorno per Attesa Occupazione?
Yes, you can. 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 Soggiorno per Attesa Lavoro’ to ‘Permesso di Soggiorno per Lavoro’ immediately or towards the end of the expiration of your ‘Permesso di Soggiorno per Attesa Lavoro’.
In some cases, your employer will handle the whole process for you, hence you do 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 recognised private or public institution as a Ph.D., Masters or Bachelors’ degree holder, you may not be eligible for this conversion.
How can you remain and work in Italy at the end of a Summer or Language Course?
If you are non-European and your status doesn’t permit you to stay after your course, to remain and work in Italy at the end of a Summer or Language Course, you will need to have a job contract from an Italian company or other prerequisites to apply for any other type of Permesso (for example Permesso per Motivi Familiari – if you got married to an Italian partner).
With this job contract, you can then ask 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 it’s 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.
I hope this helps, if you have questions, drop them in the comment box.
Hello
Thank you for your blog ıt was really helpful. I wanted to ask a question about my permesso. I have the student permesso until September and, I applied for renewing the permesso because I cannot graduate before September 2023 and I got the fingerprint date for January 2024. However, I can graduate in October or December but I don’t know if it is possible to convert it if I graduate before January. For example, If I graduate in December my permesso would be expired in September and 3 months would pass so I cannot convert. But I already applied to renew before so what would I need to do in this situation?
Thank you in advance
Kind regards
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 Hellen,
Thank you for the useful information. After graduating, I applied for the ‘attesa occupazionale’ permit, and it was issued to me. I would like to ask if I can travel to my home country with the ‘Attesa occupazionale’ permit, even if I have found a job before traveling. Additionally, do I need to apply for a ‘nulla osta’ to convert the ‘permesso di soggiorno per attesa occupazionale’ to a work permit? Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you!
“Self Certification” I got it from my Student area but its not signed or stamped , Will it be accepted?
Please advise.
Thanks
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?”