Malta Citizenship by Investment

On the policy Handbook of the Komunità Malta Agency as updated on 5 October 2021, the exceptional direct investment is set by residency route, and the Handbook itself states two different figures in two places, in euro:

Each additional dependant costs EUR 50,000. The EUR 10,000 difference between the two columns is the non-refundable deposit already paid at the residency stage.

Beyond the investment lie two property obligations. The first is purchasing an immovable residential property in Malta worth at least EUR 700,000, or taking a residential property on lease at a minimum annual rent of EUR 16,000, retained for at least five years from the date the certificate of citizenship is issued.

The second is a donation of EUR 10,000 to a registered non-governmental organisation of a philanthropic, cultural, sport, scientific, animal welfare or artistic nature.

The outcome this record describes no longer exists, and the repeal was carried out in two short but decisive legislative moves.

Act No. XXI of 2025, the Maltese Citizenship (Amendment) Act, assented to by the President on 24 July 2025 and amending Chapter 188, first deletes the definition of "individual investor programme" from article 2 of the principal Act.

It then substitutes sub-article (9) of article 10 with a new provision that changes the basis entirely:

The Minister may grant a certificate of naturalisation by merit to an alien or stateless person who renders exceptional services or makes an exceptional contribution, including through job creation, to Malta or to humanity, or whose naturalisation is of exceptional interest to Malta.

The Act defines "exceptional" as manifestly superior or adding value, and names the groups concerned: scientists, researchers, athletes, sportspersons, artists, cultural performers, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and technologists.

The Minister may also grant a certificate to an eligible dependent, and the person must take the oath of allegiance in Malta. The full text of the Act closes the matter: it does not mention investment anywhere.

Every figure in the remaining cells of this record must therefore be read as belonging to a closed route rather than a running one.

The applicant and every adult dependant must hold Maltese residency status for a minimum of 36 months, or by exception a minimum of 12 months.

During that period the agent may file the citizenship eligibility application, but the citizenship application itself may only be lodged once the applicable period since acquiring residency has run.

The other markers: from the Agency receiving the residency pack to the issue of the e-residency card takes around 15 working days.

Once first clearance is issued, the biometrics appointment and any interview are scheduled on any day within six months of that clearance. Once the Letter of Approval in Principle is issued, the applicant has four months to produce evidence that the obligations have been met.

Two long clocks run afterwards: the Agency monitors continuously for five years from the date of the oath of allegiance, and in each of those five years an Annual Compliance Form must be filed

Residence on this route is tested against travel evidence rather than a declaration: the post-approval pack must include boarding passes for each stay, or the manifest where travel was by private jet, and the Handbook stresses that those records must be kept.

The applicant must also produce documented evidence that any personal, commercial or financial ties to the country committed to in the residency proposal letter have been, or are being, honoured.

On eligibility, the policy of the Maltese Government excludes from applying nationals of Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea, and also persons who are not nationals of those countries but reside there, do business there, have significant ties with them or connections to them.

Citizens of countries on the United States travel ban likewise cannot apply.

The Agency reserves the right to update the list of banned countries from time to time, and for five years after the oath it continues to verify that the applicant still satisfies those criteria

Each dependant carries their own exceptional direct investment of EUR 50,000, and their own due diligence fee of EUR 10,000 where they are 12 years of age or over. A benefactor carries a due diligence fee of EUR 15,000.

The residency pack must include evidence of dependency, comprising acts of marriage, civil union or cohabitation and birth certificates; alongside it the Benefactor Declaration and that person bank statement, and a Parent Consent Form where a minor dependant is involved.

The 36-month or 12-month residency condition applies to adult dependants as well, not only to the main applicant

A person granted citizenship under this programme receives the Malta passport, so the figure in this cell is the figure for that passport itself.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Malta passport reaches 201 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The programme official handbook establishes no tax regime or benefit whatsoever; everything it says about tax is a disclosure obligation, and a fairly heavy one.

Section 5.18 imposes a Tax Residency Jurisdiction Declaration, to be filed in original: every applicant forming part of the application who is liable to pay tax in any jurisdiction must sign a declaration clearly listing all the jurisdictions in which they are a tax resident.

For each declared jurisdiction the corresponding tax identification number must be included.

Beyond that, the applicant must supply recent documentary evidence clearly identifying the tin for every tax residency jurisdiction listed, and that evidence may take the form of a tax residence certificate issued in respect of the most recent personal tax filing period of the relevant jurisdiction.

The tax residency declaration is item 18 in the filing order the Agency prescribes, and that order is to be repeated for each individual in the application rather than for the principal applicant alone.

The second cluster of tax references sits in the source-of-funds and source-of-wealth evidence, where income tax returns are accepted as proof in four separate places.

They are accepted as an alternative to the employment letter when evidencing income from employment, and to evidence company dividends or income received from a business. They are also accepted to evidence income from another source, and under current net worth, in the Other Sources category.

For Company Profits and Dividends specifically the handbook accepts a tax declaration evidencing the dividends received, alongside the latest audited financial statements and the board resolution approving the distribution.

On programme structure, the handbook splits the citizenship application into two tracks by residency duration: a 12-month residency track and a three-year residency track.

Read this cell within its scope: it is a policy and application handbook, not a tax instrument, so it gives no rates, does not define what income is chargeable in Malta, and does not say whether a person naturalised under the programme becomes a Maltese tax resident

The fees fall into three tiers matching three stages, with smaller charges following later, in euro:

The card renewal and change-of-address charges apply to applicant and dependants alike.

The legal basis is Subsidiary Legislation 188.06, with the rules on agents in Subsidiary Legislation 188.05; the Handbook states that in case of conflict between the guidelines and the legislation, the Act and the Subsidiary Legislation prevail.