Malta: naturalisation through residence

For many Germans, Malta is the place where sunshine, English and the EU come together. If you live there, you are already inside the European Union and do not need a Maltese passport to stay. It is still worth having: as a second right, as a second EU nationality, as a passport you can pass on to your children. The big picture of which countries make naturalisation through residence work well is in the guide naturalisation abroad. For Malta it pays to read the law itself, because it is shorter and clearer than most people think.

The routes to Maltese citizenship

The legal basis is the Maltese Citizenship Act, Chapter 188 of the Laws of Malta, last amended in 2025. Applications are handled by Aġenzija Komunità Malta, the citizenship authority. The law has several doors, and not every one is open to everyone:

For the vast majority of Germans living in Malta, the first row is the right one: naturalisation through residence. It is the route open to anyone who spends the years on the island, regardless of origin, marriage or wealth. For some families, though, one of the other three routes is the faster door.

Requirements for Maltese citizenship

Article 10(1) of the Act lists the requirements. You must be of full age and capacity, so at least 18, and you must satisfy the minister of five things:

1. You have lived in Malta without a break for the twelve months immediately before your application.
2. In the six years before those twelve months, you have lived in Malta for at least four years in total.
3. You have adequate knowledge of the Maltese or the English language.
4. You are of good character.
5. You would be a suitable citizen of Malta.

That sounds plain, and that is exactly its strength. The law sets no minimum investment, no minimum income and no obligation to hold any particular residence card. It asks whether you have lived here and whether you belong here.

One word in the text matters: the minister "may" grant naturalisation. Maltese naturalisation is a discretionary decision, not an entitlement. Komunità Malta says so explicitly on its own website: the minister has the discretion to approve or refuse the application. Article 19 goes further. The minister does not have to give reasons for the decision, and it cannot be challenged in any court. So if you want to be naturalised, you are well advised to prepare a clean and complete application rather than count on a second round.

If you are taxed in Malta on the remittance basis, keep the tax side in view as well. What can change for your taxes after five years on the island is explained by malta1 in its article on the remittance trap after year five (in German).

Five years of residence: how Malta counts the time

The residence rule has two tiers and is often misread. It consists of a fixed block and a flexible block.

The fixed block: the last twelve months before the day you apply. Throughout this period you must have lived in Malta without a break. If you will be away for months during that year, you are better off postponing your application.

The flexible block: the six years before that. Here it is enough for your time in Malta to add up to at least four years. Long trips, a project in Germany or a winter in Asia do no harm, as long as four years stand at the end.

Together that makes at least five years within a seven-year window. The law also gives the minister room to manoeuvre: in special cases he may count periods of residence that lie more than seven years before the application.

How you prove your years

The proof is not your memory but a residence certificate from the authority. Before you submit the actual application, you book an appointment with Komunità Malta so that a Residence Certificate can be drawn up. You bring your current passport to this appointment, along with all expired passports that cover your time in Malta. If you handed in old passports when renewing, sort that out early. How periods of residence are counted and proven in practice, for every country, is explained in proving your years of residence.

As a German you do not live in Malta on a visa but under the EU right of free movement. How registration as an EU citizen works and what applies to permanent residence after five years is covered by malta1 in residence in Malta as an EU citizen (in German). For naturalisation, what counts in the end is that your years in Malta are documented.

Language, referees and the oath of allegiance

English is enough

In Malta you can be naturalised without learning a new language. The law requires adequate knowledge of Maltese or English. If you work, shop and talk to your children's teachers in English every day, you meet this condition. The authority does not mention any formal citizenship test with a catalogue of questions. What language requirements, tests and oaths look like in other countries is set out in language, test and oath.

Two referees from Malta

One point surprises many applicants: you need two referees who are not related to you. The first must belong to a specific group. Komunità Malta lists, among others, members of parliament, judges, magistrates, lawyers, notaries, doctors, police officers from the rank of inspector upwards, officers of the Armed Forces of Malta from the rank of captain upwards, and parish priests. The second referee can be any Maltese citizen over 18 who does not belong to these professions.

One condition applies to both: someone who became Maltese through naturalisation cannot act as a referee. If you live in Malta and know your neighbours, business partners and family doctor, you will usually find your referees in your own circle. It still pays to approach both people early, not only when the twelve months are nearly up.

The oath of allegiance

Every naturalisation ends with the Oath of Allegiance to the Republic of Malta. Article 10(5) is clear: without this oath, no certificate of naturalisation is issued. You take the oath together with the other declarations when you submit the complete application.

Application, fees and decision

The procedure at Komunità Malta follows a clear order:

1. Appointment for the residence certificate: the authority draws up the Residence Certificate from your passports and documents.
2. Eligibility check: only once the authority confirms that you meet the requirements does it ask for the remaining documents.
3. Complete application: you submit the completed form with your referees and supporting evidence, and the authority administers the oaths and declarations.
4. The minister's decision: he decides at his discretion and without any duty to give reasons.
5. Certificate: if the decision is positive, you collect your certificate of naturalisation from the authority. You are Maltese from the date on the certificate.

The fees are low. The application costs 450 euros, and another 50 euros are due when you collect the certificate. Small extra amounts of 10 euros each apply if you swear affidavits, make declarations or take the oath of allegiance before a Commissioner for Oaths at the premises of Komunità Malta. The authority does not state a processing time.

With the certificate you are a Maltese citizen and from then on hold your EU citizenship through two member states. The European Court of Justice spelled this out in its Malta judgment: anyone who acquires the nationality of a member state automatically becomes a citizen of the Union.

Can you buy Maltese citizenship?

No, not any more. Since 2020 Malta had run a scheme called "Maltese Citizenship by Naturalisation for Exceptional Services by Direct Investment". Foreign investors could be naturalised mainly by meeting financial conditions. The European Commission took Malta to court over it.

On 29 April 2025 the European Court of Justice ruled in case C-181/23 that the scheme breaches EU law. The nationality of a member state, and with it EU citizenship, must not be the result of a commercial transaction. States remain free to set their own naturalisation rules, but not to hand out passports in return for predetermined payments.

Malta responded. In July 2025 the government published the amendments to the Citizenship Act and declared the scheme closed. All references to the scheme and its agents were removed from the law. The transition is governed by Legal Notice 159 of 2025: anyone already naturalised remains Maltese, but investor applications the minister had not approved before 29 April 2025 have ceased to have effect.

Citizenship by Merit is not a successor

What remains is Article 10(9) in a new version: naturalisation for exceptional achievements or contributions to the Republic of Malta or to humanity. The law names scientists, researchers, athletes, artists, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and technologists. Since Legal Notice 159 of 2025 the procedure has two stages. First you submit a detailed proposal to the Evaluation Board through the agency: your achievements, the exceptional contribution you intend to make and how you will keep contributing after naturalisation. Only once the minister approves it in principle does the actual application follow. For that application you must have lived in Malta for at least eight months beforehand and own adequate residential property in Malta. On 5 February 2026 Komunità Malta made clear that Citizenship by Merit is neither a programme nor a scheme and not a successor to the investor passport, and that the authority does not allow it to be advertised. Anyone who promotes this route for a fee and without authorisation risks a fine of up to 20,000 euros under Article 23 of the Act. What is legitimate and what is not is summed up by malta1 in Malta's warning about the golden passport (in German).

For you this means: since that judgment there is no EU passport in return for a predetermined payment. Why that is so, and which routes into the EU remain, is explained in buying an EU passport. If you want a second passport quickly, you will find it outside the EU, among the citizenship by investment programmes.

Marriage, descent and children

Through marriage

If you are married to a Maltese citizen, your route is not naturalisation but registration under Article 6. The condition: when you apply, you have been married and living together for at least five years, and that still holds on the day of registration. Widows and widowers have a rule of their own. The application costs 150 euros, and another 50 euros are due on collection. The law does not require residence in Malta for this route. Which countries naturalise spouses fastest is compared in naturalisation through marriage.

Through descent

Malta has a generous rule for the descendants of its emigrants. If you descend in a direct line from an ancestor who was born in Malta and whose parent was also born in Malta, you can register as a Maltese citizen under Article 5(3). Komunità Malta asks for proof of two consecutive generations of ancestors born in Malta. From 1 August 2028 the chain becomes stricter: if, on that date, the parent through whom your descent runs is alive and could register themselves, you can only register if that parent has actually acquired Maltese citizenship. So if you have Maltese ancestors, have your family registered in good time. How descent routes work in other countries is shown in the guide citizenship by descent.

Your children

Once you are naturalised, the minister can, on application, also grant naturalisation to your minor children. Komunità Malta names exactly this case: parents who were not yet Maltese when the child was born and acquired the nationality later. Children born after your naturalisation are Maltese from birth under Article 5(2), even if they are born abroad. That is how you simply pass the EU passport on to the next generation. How to include your whole family when planning a second passport is shown on the page family.

Dual citizenship: you keep your German passport

Malta does not ask you to renounce anything. Article 7 of the Citizenship Act says in a single sentence that anyone may be a citizen of Malta and of another country at the same time. Since 10 February 2000, Maltese citizens have been allowed to keep foreign nationalities.

Germany no longer stands in the way either. The Act to Modernise Nationality Law (Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Staatsangehörigkeitsrechts) repealed § 25 of the Nationality Act (Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz, StAG). Since 27 June 2024 you no longer lose your German nationality when you voluntarily acquire a foreign one, and you do not need a retention permit (Beibehaltungsgenehmigung). What that means for your family, your taxes and your travel is set out in the guide dual citizenship for Germans.

What applies after naturalisation

Naturalised Maltese citizens should know one rule. Under Article 14, the minister may deprive a naturalised citizen of citizenship if that person lives abroad for seven years without a break and during that time neither served the Republic nor gave written notice of wishing to retain Maltese citizenship. The law ties this to narrow conditions: in this case deprivation is only possible if the person's conduct seriously harms Malta's interests or there is a threat to public security. If you move away again after naturalisation, the simplest course is still to send that written notice early and put the matter to rest.

Is the Maltese passport worth it?

For anyone who lives in Malta anyway: absolutely. You gain a second EU nationality for a fee of a few hundred euros, without giving up your German passport, with English as the language and with a right your children inherit. A passport is a right, not a permission. A residence card can end; a nationality stays.

The catch is time. Five years on the island are five years, and at the end the minister decides at his discretion. If you need a second passport now, because life does not wait for the authorities, do not rely on Malta alone. Naturalisation and citizenship by investment do not exclude each other, they complement each other: naturalisation is the cheaper and ultimately stronger route, while the investment buys you the time until then. Why you should pursue both in parallel is explained in CBI and naturalisation.

The difference in speed is clear. For Grenada, the competent authority states approval within 60 working days of submission; in Malta the residence period alone takes five years. Which programmes are open today is listed under programmes, and the differences in cost, family and freedom to travel are shown in the comparison. And if you stay in Malta, after five years you will hold three passports.

Frequently asked questions