Legislative Decree 253/2016 and the conditions of entry and stay of foreign workers in Italy, as part of intra-corporate transfers

Legislative Decree No. 253/2016 which regulates the conditions of entry and stay in Italy of foreign employees as part of intra-corporate transfers was published in the Official Gazette of 10 January 2017. The aforementioned decree, in force since 11 January, contains the provisions necessary for the transposition of Directive 2014/66/EU dated 15 May 2014, the so-called ICT (Inter-corporate transfers) directive. In particular, two articles were introduced into the Consolidated Law on Immigration (Legislative Decree No. 286/1998): article 27-quinques and article 27-sexies. The first identifies (i) the categories of concerned workers, i.e. managers; qualified workers; workers in training holding a university degree transferred for the purpose of career development or acquisition of skills or company methods; (ii) the maximum length of time of the intra-corporate transfer, set at three years for managers and qualified workers and one year for trainees; (iii) the definition of intra-corporate transfer and host entity as well as (iv) the procedures for sending the applications for entrance permits. Article 27-sexies, instead, deals with the mobility of foreign workers between EU Countries. This article regulates the entry and stay in the national territory of workers who already hold an ICT permit issued by another member state.