Trapped in administrative limbo. The Italian 2020 regularisation programme four years later.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Italian government launched its first regularisation program in eight years in 2020. Four years later, many applications are still waiting for a decision, particularly in large urban centres. This study exam- ines the experience of ‘being on hold’ among migrants in Milan through in-depth interviews and participant observation, highlighting how delays in regularisation intensify migrants’ vulnerability and exposure to exploitation. By adopting a tempo- ral perspective on migration-related control, we analyse how prolonged application processing creates a persistent state of «administrative limbo», while also giving rise to specific counterstrategies migrants develop to navigate the challenges of ex- tended waiting.