Italy Work Visa from Vietnam: Decreto Flussi, Hanoi Embassy and Real Costs (2026)

Is Italy a realistic target for Vietnamese workers in 2026?

Yes, with one honest warning. Italy is one of the few EU countries that has opened labour quotas specifically with Vietnam in mind, and Vietnamese workers are already in Italian factories, kitchens and farms, mostly in the north. But every legal entry runs through an annual quota that fills in minutes, and the wait from an employer's application to your arrival is months, not weeks.

If your goal is to leave within a season, Romania and Poland currently process Vietnamese workers faster and in larger numbers, and both have agencies in Hanoi that have done it for years. If you have an Italian employer who is genuinely willing to file for you, Italy pays better and the path to a long-term permit is clearer. This guide is for the second case.

The legal route: Decreto Flussi, click day and the nulla osta

Italy does not let a worker apply for a work visa alone. Almost every legal entry for manual and skilled trades goes through the annual flows decree, the Decreto Flussi. For 2026 to 2028 Italy adopted a three-year decree, about 497,550 places over three years and roughly 164,850 for 2026, split into seasonal (lavoro stagionale, up to 9 months, mostly farming and tourism) and non-seasonal (lavoro subordinato non stagionale, construction, transport, mechanics, caregiving). Vietnam has in recent decrees been among the countries given a reserved share of non-seasonal places because of bilateral cooperation on labour migration; check the current year's decree text for whether and how large that share is.

The process starts in Italy, not in your country. Your employer files an application for a work authorisation, the nulla osta, through the Sportello Unico per l'Immigrazione portal on the published click day. Quotas fill in minutes. If the application is accepted and the employer passes the checks, the prefettura issues the nulla osta, usually weeks to months later. Only with that document in hand do you apply for the national work visa (type D) at the Italian mission in your country. Authority: integrazionemigranti.gov.it and the Ministry of the Interior, interno.gov.it.

Where to apply in Vietnam and what the file contains

Italian work visas for Vietnamese citizens are handled by the Embassy of Italy in Hanoi and the Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City, each through an outsourced visa application centre in its city. You book an appointment online once the nulla osta exists. Bring:

• Passport: valid at least three months beyond the visa and with two free pages.
• The original nulla osta: sent by your employer, plus the signed employment contract matching it.
• Criminal record certificate: the judicial record (Phiếu lý lịch tư pháp) from the Department of Justice of your province, recent.
• Legalised and translated documents: Vietnam is not in the Hague Apostille Convention, so each document goes through consular legalisation: notarised translation into Italian, certification by the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular department, then legalisation at the Italian mission. Budget weeks for this.
• Proof of accommodation in Italy: usually provided by the employer in the contract file.
• Travel health insurance: covering the entry period until Italian registration.

Official fees and what the whole move really costs

The visa fee for an Italian type D national visa is about €116 (roughly 3.0 to 3.3 million VND), plus the service fee of the visa centre where one is used. That is the only fee Italy charges you for the visa. The nulla osta costs the employer a stamp duty, not you. Then there are the costs on your side:

• Judicial record certificate: about 200,000 VND.
• Notarised translations and MOFA legalisation: about 2 to 5 million VND depending on the number of documents.
• Medical check: about 1 to 2 million VND if the employer requires one.
• Insurance for the entry period: about 1 to 1.5 million VND.
• One-way ticket Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City to Italy: about 15 to 25 million VND.

Total for a legal move is typically €800 to €1,500 of your own money, most of it the ticket and the paperwork. Anybody quoting you €5,000 to €15,000 "for the visa and the job" is selling something Italy does not sell. As of October 2026, check the current fee on the mission's page.

Trades where Vietnamese workers are actually hired

Italian employers who have filed for Vietnamese workers in recent decrees are mostly in manufacturing in Veneto, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna (metalwork, textiles, food processing), in restaurant kitchens, in agriculture and in nail and beauty services where Vietnamese communities already work. Welding and CNC experience is in short supply in the north and is worth stating precisely on your profile, with the processes and materials.

Scams aimed at workers from Vietnam

The patterns repeat in every country Italy recruits from. Learn them once.

• A paid nulla osta: nobody can sell you one. It is issued to an employer for a named person after a click-day application. A PDF sent on WhatsApp with a stamp is worthless until the prefettura's own portal confirms it.
• A click-day slot for sale: agents claim they can guarantee a place in the quota. They cannot. Applications are filed by the employer and the portal does not know who paid whom.
• Visa in 30 days: the realistic path from click day to arrival is many months. A promise of weeks is a promise to take your money before you notice.
• Employer that exists only on WhatsApp: a real Italian company has a VAT number (partita IVA) you can check in the business register, a landline, and an address.
• The 'export labour' company that charges a Europe fee: Vietnamese law licenses companies to send workers abroad and caps what they may charge; a fee of several thousand dollars for an Italian job is outside any legal cap and is a red flag, not a service.

Report fraud to the Italian police online at poliziadistato.it and to the police in your own country. Workuro's scam check reads an offer and tells you which of these patterns it matches.

How to check the employer before you pay anything

Every Italian company has a partita IVA (VAT number) and an entry in the Registro Imprese kept by the chambers of commerce. For a few euros you can buy a visura camerale online at registroimprese.it that shows the company name, address, legal representative, activity code and whether it is active. Compare the address and the representative with your contract. A company that cannot give you a partita IVA, or whose visura says cessata (ceased), is not an employer that can file a nulla osta.

Before you sign anything

First, four things people get wrong:

• Myth: a tourist visa can be converted to a work permit in Italy: fact: it cannot, except in rare regularisation decrees that are announced years apart. Entering as a tourist and working is illegal and blocks future permits.
• Myth: the employer pays for everything: fact: the employer pays the nulla osta stamp duty and the contract costs. The visa fee, your documents, your medical and your ticket are yours unless the contract says otherwise.
• Myth: you need Italian before you apply: fact: no language test is required for the work visa. Italian A2 matters later, for the long-term EU permit, and employers in caregiving and hospitality do ask for basics at hiring.
• Myth: seasonal work is a dead end: fact: a seasonal worker who returns legally gets priority in the next decree, and conversion to a non-seasonal permit is possible when the quota allows.

Then the checks that take ten minutes and save months:

• Check the employer: ask for the company's partita IVA and look it up in the Italian business register (Registro Imprese). A real company has one.
• Read the contract in a language you understand: the salary, the contract type (tempo determinato or indeterminato), the hours and who pays what must be written.
• Never hand over your passport: to anybody who is not the visa centre or the mission.
• Keep every receipt: and every message. If something goes wrong, that is your evidence.

Where this leaves you

If you have read this far, you already know more than most people who hand money to an agent. The pages below go one level deeper on the pieces that matter for your case.

• Italy work visa 2026: types, cost, processing time, how to apply
• Italy work permit processing time
• Welder jobs in Italy for foreign workers
• Farm and agricultural jobs in Italy

The Workuro profile is free, employers search it and contact you, and nobody is ever charged to be listed - create a free profile.