This permit is issued pursuant to Article 27, paragraph 1, letter a) of the Italian immigration law (Legislative Decree 286/1998).

This is a special type of permit that is valid for up to five years and specifically for managers or highly skilled employees employed by a company abroad that are seconded to Italy to perform activities within an Italian company.

To obtain a work and residence permit, an application must be filed through an online system. The application must contain the terms and conditions of the foreign national's subordinate employment relationship (contratto di soggiorno per lavoro). This is basically a new type of employment agreement. It requires the following to be valid:

• The guarantee that the employer will provide the foreign national with a house or other living accommodations
• The undertaking to pay travel expenses for the foreign national to return to their country of origin once either their permit has expired or they do not obtain a renewal

This type of contract must be signed with the mediation of the sportello unico per l'immigrazione. The duration of the permit is as follows:

• For seasonal employment, no longer than nine months
• For fixed-term employment, one year
• For employment for an indefinite period of time, one or two years, at the immigration authorities' discretion

On 11 January 2017, Legislative Decree 253/2016 entered into force and implemented the so-called ITC Directive (Intercorporate Transfers) No. 2014/66/EU, which regulates the conditions of entry and residence of foreign nationals in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer (the entering into force of this new law determined the introduction of Article 27, section 5 of the Italian immigration law (Legislative Decree 286/1998)).

This legislation seeks to facilitate the mobility of workers subject to intra-corporate transfers within the EU and reduce the administrative burden associated with work assignments in different member states.

The requirements to benefit from this mobility program are as follows:

• The employing entity and the host entity belong to a group of companies according to Article 2,359 of the Italian Civil Code. We expect that it will not be easy to represent the existence of the group of companies in cases of articulated structures that lack a consolidated balance sheet or proof of the existence of entities within the group outside Italy.
• The employee has been employed by any company of the group for at least three consecutive months prior to the secondment in Italy.
• The employee has the qualifications and experience required by their classification as an executive, skilled worker or trainee.

The maximum length of the secondment is three years for executives and skilled workers and one year for trainees.

A permit holder's spouse and children (that enter Italy before reaching the age of majority or who cannot autonomously provide for their own needs even if above the majority age) can obtain work and residence permits independently from the quota system for the same validity period as the work permit.