Italy has reserved 3,000 working-immigrant slots for Filipinos after granting 170,000 permits for foreign workers. Out of this number, 1,000 slots are allocated for applicants such as managers, skilled and even unskilled workers.

The said job opportunity is under the government decree passed last month. The Decree on Immigration Quota for Non-European Union (EU) citizens allows non-EU residents, including Filipinos, to work in the country this year.

The Philippine Ambassador to Italy Philippe Lhuillier clarified that the quota was made available only to countries with specific bilateral agreements with Italy. Philippines and Italy has signed an agreement that Italian government will extend a special quota for Filipino workers annually; the agreement was called Readmission Agreement in February 2004.

Executive Director Pedro Chan of the Department of Foreign Affairs Office of Migrant Workers’ Affairs Office (DFA-OUMWA) is assisting Filipino workers in applying for work permits in Italy.  

Assisting Filipino migrants and making a representation with Italian immigration authorities has been their practice according to Chan.

He also added that most of the beneficiaries of the amnesty granted by the government of Italy were Filipinos.

"(This is because) Filipino labor is highly regarded in Italy," Chan said.

Since February 18, application forms for direct hiring have been available in at selected Italian post office. And since then, hundreds of thousands of together with employers stood in long lines in a post office in Rome hoping that they can catch one of the 170,000 permits for foreign workers.

Employers who stand in line either to apply permits for their current employees or to look for permits for foreigners they wanted to hire.

According to Lhuillier, employers will have to fill out application forms to hire potential Filipino workers in Italy.

There are more than 6,000 windows at post offices throughout Italy that start taking applications in the early afternoon. Each application forms are stamped with exact time before mailing it to the Interior Ministry, from Interior Ministry it will goes up to the local labor offices. Respond to each applications are expected within 20 days.