The single permit is the main route by which a third-country national comes to work in Malta. One application produces two things at once: an employment licence and a residence permit.
It is tied to the employer who applied for it, and that tie is the most important thing to understand about it.
How the single permit works
Your employer makes the application
The employer starts the process and carries most of the administrative burden. You supply documents; they submit.
That means you generally need the job offer before you can begin, not the other way round.
Working in Malta
The permit is tied to that employer
If you change job, the permit does not travel with you. A new employer has to make a new application. There is a process for the gap in between.
Understand that before you accept a role, because it shapes your options later.
Other routes
The card and your family
The eResidence card follows approval, and family reunification is a separate application with its own conditions on income and accommodation.
Neither happens automatically, and both take longer than the permit itself.
Bringing family
What the permit does not allow
Identita states these limits explicitly. They are worth reading carefully because they are narrower than people assume.
A single permit holder may not
- Work for anyone else
- Carry out paid duties assigned by any party other than the identified employer. No second job, no freelancing on the side.
- Do different work
- Carry out unauthorised work unrelated to the specific employment activity named in the application. The role itself is part of the permission.
- Be sent abroad
- Be assigned duties outside Maltese territory.
Your employer makes the application
A third-country national cannot submit a single permit application directly. The prospective employer applies on your behalf through the Identita expatriates portal, and the employer must be registered with Jobsplus. Once submitted, the application is referred to Jobsplus, which carries out the labour market checks from an employment perspective.
For new applications, employers usually have to show the post was advertised through Jobsplus and on the EU-wide EURES portal. It must have run for a minimum period before the application. This is the labour market test. It is the step most likely to delay an otherwise straightforward hire.
Where you can be when you apply
You can apply while still abroad and outside the Schengen area. You can also apply while legally staying in Malta or in another Schengen state. You do not have to be in one particular place to start the process.
The permit is tied to a named employer and a named role. Moving to a different company needs a change of employer to be processed, not just a resignation letter. Leaving a job without the next permission in place puts your right to reside at risk, not just your income. Understand the position before you accept or leave a role.
Between the advertising period, the Jobsplus assessment and the Identita decision, this is a process measured in months. Do not resign from a job elsewhere, give notice on a home or book a flight on the assumption of a quick turnaround.
Before you travel
Identita runs a pre-departure course for first-time single permit applicants. If it applies to you, it is part of the process rather than an optional extra.
Eligibility, the document checklist, processing periods, fees, renewals and change of employer are all published by Identità, the authority that issues the permit. Requirements are revised periodically, so take the checklist from them at the time you apply.