New on TikTok: Title of the episode “Converting the Special Protection Permit: The Sicily Regional Administrative Court Clarifies When the Right Exists” Podcast Episode – English Version Good morning, this is lawyer Fabio Loscerbo, and you are listening to a new episode of the Immigration Law Podcast. Today we examine an important decision published on the twenty-first of November two thousand twenty-five by the Regional Administrative Court of Sicily, Third Section. The case, registered under general docket number eight hundred fifty-one of two thousand twenty-five, concerns the refusal by the Police Headquarters of Palermo to convert a special protection residence permit into a residence permit for subordinate employment. The case mirrors a situation that many foreign nationals are facing in recent months. The applicant had obtained special protection following a judicial decree issued on the eighth of May two thousand twenty-three by the Court of Palermo, which recognised the relevance of his path of social and work integration. The Court stated that removing him from Italian territory would unjustifiably interfere with his private and family life. Based on that judicial order, the Police Headquarters issued a two-year residence permit. Later, in August two thousand twenty-four, the foreign national signed an open-ended employment contract as a domestic worker. In October of the same year, he applied to convert his special protection permit into a work permit. The Police Headquarters denied the request, arguing that the special protection had been granted within proceedings related to international protection—rather than in connection with an application for special protection submitted before the fifth of May two thousand twenty-three—and therefore the transitional regime under Article Seven of Decree-Law Twenty of two thousand twenty-three would not apply. It is precisely at this point that the judgment of the Sicily Regional Administrative Court provides a clarification of significant practical impact. The Court states that the Police Headquarters applied an excessively restrictive interpretation of the transitional regime. The central point is this: the intertemporal rules introduced by Article Seven of Decree-Law Twenty of two thousand twenty-three do not distinguish between the procedures through which special protection was granted. The only relevant requirement is that the applicant’s request for special protection was submitted before the fifth of May two thousand twenty-three and that the administration’s subsequent refusal was declared unlawful by a judicial authority. The Court expressly refers to the opinion of the State Legal Service, which states that conversion is permitted for all special protection permits recognised by a court, regardless of whether they originated under Article Nineteen of the Consolidated Immigration Act or Article Thirty-Two, paragraph three, of Legislative Decree Twenty-Five of two thousand eight. In other words, there cannot be two types of special protection—one convertible and one not—because the statutory requirements are identical. The judgment also recalls a key passage from recent administrative case law, which states that “the law has established a single temporal threshold for the convertibility of the title, namely the date on which the special protection application was submitted, and no other conditions.” In practical terms, the Police Headquarters cannot add restrictions that the legislator did not impose. This approach, consistent with rulings of the Council of State and other regional administrative courts, leads the Sicilian bench to annul the refusal and recognise the applicant’s right to convert the permit, also confirming his admission to legal aid at public expense. From an operational standpoint, this decision has considerable weight. It consolidates a clear and now stable principle: anyone who submitted their special protection request before the fifth of May two thou

https://ift.tt/436or9b