If you are not an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen you need permission before you can live in Malta. Which permission you need depends on why you are coming.
There is no general residence application here. You pick a route. The route has its own authority, its own conditions and its own timetable.
Pick the route first
The single permit
The main route for third-country nationals coming to work. One application produces both an employment licence and a residence permit. It is tied to the employer who applied.
Changing job means a new application, and most people do not realise that.
About the single permit
The nomad residence permit
This route is for people employed by, or contracting with, companies based outside Malta. Run by the Residency Malta Agency and designed for remote workers rather than adapted from something else.
It has an income threshold and it is checked.
The nomad permit
Residence programmes
Routes based on means rather than employment, with financial thresholds and serious due diligence attached.
These are slow and document-heavy, and worth professional advice rather than guesswork.
The programmes
Which route is yours
- You have a job offer hereThe single permit. Your employer applies on your behalf, and the permit is tied to that employer and that role.
- You work remotely for someone abroadThe Nomad Residence Permit, with a minimum gross income of 42,000 euro a year.
- You are coming on means rather than workThe residence programmes, which turn on property, income and contribution thresholds.
- You are joining family already hereFamily reunification, which depends on the status of the person you are joining.
Visiting is not the same as moving
Malta is in Schengen, so if your nationality is visa-exempt you may visit for up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period. That is a visitor allowance and nothing more. It does not permit you to work, it does not accumulate into residence, and overstaying it has consequences for future entry. The rules are set out under visas and entry requirements.
What every route has in common
Expect to provide
- A valid travel document
- Valid well beyond the period you are applying for.
- Somewhere to live
- A rental or purchase agreement, usually before the permit rather than after it.
- Health insurance
- Covering you in Malta, and often across the EU.
- A police conduct certificate
- From where you have been living.
- Evidence of means
- Bank statements and contracts, not assertions. Every route tests this in some form.
- Time
- Months rather than weeks. Do not resign, give notice or book flights against an assumed date.
Maltese processes are sequential: each office wants a document produced by the one before it. Doing them out of order is the single most common reason a move takes three months instead of one. The sequence is set out under your first 30 days.
Residence and identity documentation are administered by Identità, and the residence programmes by the Residency Malta Agency. Immigration rules change, and they turn on details specific to you. This page explains how the system works. It is not advice on your case.