Malta for Nigerians

Study in Malta

Start with admission to a full-time course at MQF Level 5 or above at an institution licensed by the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA), which you can check on the MFHEA list before paying fees. With the acceptance letter and proof that the fees are paid, you apply for a long-stay (D) study visa at the VFS Global visa application centre in Nigeria.

In Malta, you apply to Identità's Expatriates Unit for a student residence permit and attend biometrics. You may work up to 20 hours a week once your employer gets you an employment licence from Jobsplus.

After the course, Identità offers a one-time nine-month permit to look for work, and an employer who hires you files a Single Permit application while you stay in Malta.

For the visa and again for the residence permit, you show that your tuition is paid and that you can support yourself in Malta. Identità asks for bank statements for the last three months and proof of accommodation.

You also need private health insurance for your whole stay, and the policy must cover medical and hospital bills in Malta up to at least €100,000. That €100,000 is the most the insurer would pay if you fell ill. It is not money you pay or keep in your account; you only pay the normal premium for the policy. Students at the University of Malta, MCAST or the Institute of Tourism Studies do not need this private policy.

If a parent or sponsor is paying, add the sponsor's signed declaration, a copy of the sponsor's passport or ID card, the sponsor's bank statements and proof that the money has reached your account. Identità sets the minimum amount by reference to a national income benchmark, so check the current figure on its study checklist before you apply.

Official Study Source

Work in Malta

The usual permit for a Nigerian taking a job in Malta is the Single Permit, a combined work and residence permit tied to one employer. The employer, which must be registered with Jobsplus, files it on Identità's online portal, and you confirm your details through a link Identità emails to you.

First-time applicants need a Pre-Departure Course certificate from the Skills Pass portal, and tourism and hospitality workers also need the Skills Pass from the Institute of Tourism Studies.

Identità's Approval in Principle letter lets you apply for the long-stay visa at the VFS Global centre in Nigeria, but you may start work only after arriving in Malta and completing biometrics. Decisions take about two months on average.

The employer can file an ordinary Single Permit only after advertising the job with Jobsplus and on EURES. For skilled jobs, it can use the Key Employee Initiative instead, for managerial or highly technical jobs paying at least €45,000 a year, with a decision in about five working days.

The Specialist Employee Initiative covers jobs paying at least €30,000 a year where you hold a degree-level qualification, or a lower one with three years of related experience, and takes about fifteen working days. The EU Blue Card is for highly qualified workers earning at least one and a half times Malta's average salary.

Every permit is tied to one employer, so changing jobs needs Identità's approval first. Your Nigerian degree needs recognition from the Malta Qualifications Recognition Information Centre (MQRIC), so apply for that early.

Permanent residency and citizenship in Malta

Identità grants long-term residence, Malta's permanent status for non-EU nationals, after five years of legal and continuous residence. Absences must not exceed six months at a time or ten months in total, and time on a student permit, as a seasonal worker, as an asylum seeker or under the Family Members Policy does not count.

You must also show that for the last two years you earned taxed income of at least Malta's national minimum wage, plus 20 per cent more for each family member who depends on you. This is a lower income test than the one for bringing family to Malta, which is explained under Family Reunification. You also need a registered lease or title deed, and health insurance.

Before applying, you complete the 100-hour I Belong integration course and pass a Maltese language test at MQF Level 2. The residence card is renewed every five years.

Citizenship applications go to the Community Malta Agency. For naturalisation you need residence in Malta for the full twelve months before applying and for four of the six years before that, adequate Maltese or English and good character, and the Minister decides at his discretion. The spouse of a Maltese citizen can apply after five years of marriage and living together, while still married and living together.

Malta allows dual citizenship, and Nigeria lets its citizens by birth hold another citizenship, so you can keep your Nigerian passport. The citizenship-by-investment scheme was ruled contrary to EU law by the Court of Justice of the European Union in April 2025 and replaced with discretionary naturalisation for exceptional services.

Family Reunification in Malta

If you hold a Maltese residence permit and have lived in Malta legally for at least two years, you can apply to Identità to bring your husband or wife and unmarried children under 18, as long as your permit is valid for at least one more year.

You file Form G.01 for each person on the Expatriates Unit portal while they are still outside Malta, because Identità refuses family members who are already there, except children born in Malta. Once approved, they apply for the long-stay visa at the VFS Global centre in Nigeria.

Your spouse can apply for an employment licence through Jobsplus after the first renewal, and after five years your spouse and any child who has turned 18 can apply for their own residence permit. If you have lived in Malta for 12 months but not yet two years, ask about Identità's discretionary Family Members Policy.

Your husband or wife, aged at least 21, and your unmarried children under 18. Adopted children count, and so do children from an earlier relationship if you have custody or the other parent consents. Only one spouse can be sponsored, and a dependent parent or adult child may be considered only in exceptional cases under the Family Members Policy.

You send Identità a signed covering letter confirming at least two years of legal residence in Malta and your plans to stay, with a copy of your residence permit and evidence such as your employment contract.

For the home, you provide an architect's attestation that it suits a family of that size, the lease registered with the Housing Authority, and Identità's Lease Attestation Form signed by the landlord and countersigned by a lawyer, notary or legal procurator. A one-room home is not accepted for a couple or a family.

Identità counts only your basic gross pay from your main job, not overtime, bonuses, allowances or part-time work, and only one sponsor's income. The test is Malta's average wage, plus 20 per cent more for each family member you bring. This is higher than the minimum wage test used for long-term residence. The Family Members Policy uses a different figure, so check the current amount on Identità's family checklist before you apply.

The original Nigerian marriage and birth certificates, authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja and legalized as Identità requires (see Using Nigerian Documents in Malta below), full passport copies, and custody papers or the other parent's notarised consent for a child from an earlier relationship. Documents issued in English need no translation.

Each family member also needs private health insurance for their first year in Malta that covers medical and hospital bills up to at least €100,000. That figure is the most the insurer would pay, not money you pay or show; you only pay the normal premium for each policy.

Marriage in Malta

Civil marriages in Malta are handled by the Marriage Registry of the Public Registry, part of Identità, at its office in Marsa. Contact the Registry at pubreg.marriage.identita@gov.mt at least three months before the wedding so it can confirm which Nigerian documents it needs, publish the banns and assign a Marriage Registrar.

You both sign Form RZ1, the request for the publication of banns, and Form RZ2, the declaration under the Marriage Act, which a couple living abroad signs before a notary public, solicitor or commissioner for oaths. The ceremony is held in English or Maltese.

The Nigerian partner brings a National Population Commission birth certificate and proof of being free to marry, which Malta calls a free status certificate. Nigeria has no document by that name, so ask the Registry which it accepts, such as a bachelorhood or spinsterhood letter from the Local Government or Area Council with a High Court affidavit of single status. The Registry's guidance also accepts an affidavit from a third party who knows you well.

A divorced partner adds the decree absolute, and a widowed partner adds the previous marriage certificate and the late spouse's death certificate. Each document is authenticated and legalized as explained under Using Nigerian Documents in Malta, and free status documents are valid for three months, so obtain them close to the wedding.

Also bring copies of both passports, your visa or Schengen entry stamp, and your witnesses' ID cards or passports.

Submit the documents between three months and six weeks before the wedding, because the Registry rejects late applications. After approval, you pay the fee and meet the Registrar a day or two before the ceremony.

Marrying in Malta does not by itself give the Nigerian partner the right to live there. The foreign spouse of a Maltese citizen applies to Identità's Expatriates Unit for a residence permit under Article 4 of the Immigration Act, and a marriage made in Nigeria is registered with the Public Registry in Malta. If your spouse is a non-EU national living in Malta, the Family Reunification rules above apply.

Using Nigerian Documents in Malta

Any Nigerian document you use in Malta, such as a National Population Commission birth certificate or a marriage certificate, must first be authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja. Identità may then also require it to be legalized by a Maltese embassy or consulate before it accepts the document.

What Identità asks for can differ by application and by document, so during your application ask the Identità unit handling it, such as the Expatriates Unit (noneu.identita@gov.mt) or the Marriage Registry (pubreg.marriage.identita@gov.mt), what it needs for each Nigerian document, and get the answer in writing before you send any original.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja authenticates the original Nigerian document by stamping and signing it, which certifies that it was validly issued in Nigeria so that embassies and immigration authorities abroad can rely on it.

People often call this an apostille, and in practice it does the same job of making a Nigerian document usable abroad. Legally, though, Nigeria is not a member of the Apostille Convention and does not issue apostilles, so the Nigerian equivalent is Ministry of Foreign Affairs authentication, followed by legalization where the country using the document requires it.

Identità's policy says documents from outside the European Union must be apostilled or fully legalized, and since Nigeria does not issue apostilles, Identità may ask for a Nigerian document to be legalized by a Maltese embassy or consulate after Ministry of Foreign Affairs authentication. Malta has no embassy in Nigeria, so ask Identità where and how it wants this done.

Identità's Expatriates Unit also accepts non-EU documents that come with a forensic consultation certificate. The VFS Global centre in Nigeria handles Malta visa applications and is not listed as a legalization service, so do not give it original certificates for legalization.

Nigerian documents issued in English need no translation for Malta. If any part, such as a stamp, is in another language, use a translator on Identità's Translators List in Malta, because a translation made outside Malta and the EU must itself be apostilled or fully legalized.

National Population Commission birth certificate or Birth Attestation Certificate, marriage certificate, decree absolute, death certificate of a late spouse, bachelorhood or spinsterhood letter and High Court affidavit of single status, custody orders and parental consent letters, degree certificates and transcripts (which also need MQRIC recognition for a work permit), WAEC or NECO certificates, and the Nigeria Police Force character certificate where one is requested.

If you are overseas and need local expertise with these Nigerian documents, feel free to reach out to Antarch Consulting via the website contact page.

Asylum & Legal Stay in Malta

If you are in Malta and fear serious harm if you return to Nigeria, tell the International Protection Agency (IPA) in Hamrun, the Immigration Police or the detention services that you want to apply for international protection. The IPA registers your application, takes your fingerprints and gives you a Personal Details Form that lets you stay in Malta while your case is decided.

If Malta is responsible for your case, you lodge the application at an IPA appointment and receive an Asylum Seeker's Document, which you must renew before it expires. Bring your passport and any document that supports your claim.

Official Asylum & Legal Stay Source

After lodging, the IPA interviews you about your identity, why you left Nigeria and what you fear on return. Free legal aid is not provided at the interview, so you can pay a lawyer or ask a Maltese NGO for legal support.

If the IPA refuses your application, you have 15 calendar days from notification to appeal to the International Protection Appeals Tribunal in Valletta, where free legal aid is available, and the Tribunal's decision is final.