Malta’s nomad permit renewal requires five months spent in Malta

Malta’s Nomad Residence Permit is issued for a year at a time, and renewing it depends on time spent in Malta. Residency Malta Agency asks for a bank statement of payments made in Malta, as proof that the holder lived there for at least five months, cumulatively, in the previous 12 months. The permit can be renewed three times, to a maximum of four years, at the agency’s discretion.

Who can apply

The permit is open to nationals of countries outside the EU, the European Economic Area and Switzerland who are 18 or over and can work remotely, whatever their location. The agency’s FAQ, updated in April 2026, excludes nationals of nine named countries, or people with close ties to them, and treats applications from Russia and Belarus as currently not eligible.

Vietnam is on neither list. The agency may revise the list at its discretion.

The applicant must work for an employer registered abroad, run a business for a company registered abroad in which they are a partner or shareholder, or provide freelance or consulting services under contract to clients with a permanent establishment abroad.

Anyone who serves a Maltese subsidiary of a foreign company, or who serves companies or individuals based in Malta directly or indirectly, is ineligible. Holders and their dependants may not offer services to, or take part in economic activity with, employers or companies based in Malta.

Applicants also need a valid travel document and a police conduct certificate, and must pass a background check.

After approval in principle they must submit proof of accommodation covering the whole duration of the permit and a prepaid health insurance policy for one full year, with minimum cover of EUR 100,000 in the European Union, including Malta, and the United Kingdom. The agency states that holders are not entitled to free health care.

The income test and the renewal test

Applicants need gross income of at least EUR 42,000 a year; those who applied before 1 April 2024 keep the earlier EUR 32,400. The income must be guaranteed for at least five months, cumulatively, from the day of application. The last three months’ bank statements, in the applicant’s name, must show the income credited directly to those accounts.

At renewal, a different five-month test applies, one of residence rather than income. The renewal checklist asks for a bank statement showing transactions in Malta as proof of residence there for at least five months, cumulatively, in the last 12 months. The agency’s application submission guide, a 2024 file, adds that the five months need not be the latest ones and may cover different periods over the permit’s duration.

The checklist asks separately for the last three months’ statements, which must be official PDFs downloaded from the bank’s portal or app. At the second and third renewals the holder also submits a declaration confirming compliance with the tax laws applicable to them.

Renewal must be filed two to three months before expiry, and the receipt of the application is not an extension of stay. The renewal rule appears in the agency’s FAQ and checklist; the order that establishes the agency says it administers the permit in accordance with “the general conditions and policy established by the Government”.

A temporary permit

The permit does not lead to permanent or long-term residence or to citizenship. It does not convert into the Malta Permanent Residence Programme: a holder may apply to that programme separately and, if approved, must renounce the nomad permit. Any other permit the holder has in Malta is revoked automatically when the nomad permit is issued.

The grant is always discretionary. The agency’s decision is final and cannot be appealed, and a refused applicant may apply again 12 months after the date of the rejection letter.

A holder who files no renewal, or whose renewal is rejected, may file a fresh application 12 months after the permit expires. The FAQ says previous stays on the permit will be taken into account, in the passage that also sets the four-year maximum.

Family and fees

The application may include a spouse, an unmarried partner in a stable relationship of more than two consecutive years, minor children, unmarried adult children who depend mainly on the main applicant, and adult children who cannot cope independently because of a medical condition or disability. Family members can be added only at the start or at renewal, with newborns the sole exception.

The application fee is EUR 300 per person, non-refundable, paid by bank transfer from the main applicant’s own account. The residence card costs EUR 100 per person, paid by card at the agency’s offices, and visa fees may apply. The agency expects processing to take 30 working days from its receipt of the fee, not counting any time needed for a visa.

Applying from Vietnam

The application goes only through the agency’s online portal. Vietnam is on the agency’s list of nationalities that need an entry visa, so an approved applicant is contacted by the Central Visa Unit at Identità, Malta’s identity agency, with information on the visa process. Identità’s long-stay visa policy lists nomad among the purposes for which a D visa may be issued.

Malta’s embassy in Beijing announced in March 2023 that from 20 March two visa application centres run by VFS Global, in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, would provide visa facilitation for Vietnamese nationals applying for a national D visa.

Documents not in English need an English translation, and the police certificate must be an original less than six months old on submission, certified by the national police. Malta did not object to Vietnam’s accession to the Apostille Convention, which took effect for Vietnam on 11 September 2026; Austria, Czechia and Germany did.

Identità’s policy on foreign public documents requires third-country public documents to be apostilled or fully legalised wherever Identità recognises and registers them.

Tax

Under Malta’s Nomad Residence Permits (Income Tax) Rules, the income of the main applicant from remote work for an employer, or for clients, not resident in Malta and without a fixed place of business there is taxed at 10%.

No tax is due on that income before the end of 12 months from the permit’s issue (or from 1 January 2024, if later), unless the holder files a declaration that their residence in Malta is not merely casual. Foreign tax of at least 10% on the income, proved to the agency with official documents, removes the duty to report it in Malta.

Income chargeable to tax in Malta derived by a family member included in the permit is outside the Rules and stays under the Income Tax Act.

The Malta Tax and Customs Administration states that acceptance as a nomad does not grant tax residency. The agency’s FAQ adds that holding the permit does not necessarily entitle the holder to be taxed under the Rules, because the holder must also meet every condition they set.

This regime is separate from Malta’s special tax status, for which the Individual Tax Programme Rules set a EUR 700,000 property threshold.

What this article has not established

No law or regulation read sets the renewal test.

How the agency counts months from bank transactions was not established.

Whether the bank must be Maltese, and whether a statement from a foreign bank is accepted, was not established.

Whether dependants must also show five months in Malta at renewal was not established. The texts read ask for evidence that the main applicant has resided in Malta.

Whether a holder who has used four years on the permit can file a fresh application, and how previous stays are taken into account, were not established.

Whether the visa application centres in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City operate today and accept nomad D visa applications was not established, nor was the fee for the D visa.

Whether the agency requires an Apostille or legalisation on documents in a nomad file, and whether Identità’s policy on foreign public documents applies to such files, was not established.

How Vietnam taxes income earned under the permit was not established, nor how the double taxation agreement between Malta and Vietnam, in force since 25 November 2016, applies to it.