Malta

No. The direct citizenship-by-investment route, the MEIN scheme, was struck down by the Court of Justice of the EU in Case C-181/23, European Commission v Republic of Malta, on 29 April 2025. Malta then repealed the investment route through the Maltese Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Act XXI of 2025, in force 24 July 2025. It was the last direct citizenship-by-investment programme in the EU, and no new applications are accepted. Several intermediaries have kept advertising Malta citizenship by investment, a MEIN route or a last window after that date. Treat any such 2026 offer as a red flag. The product no longer exists. Existing citizens naturalised under the scheme are not stripped of citizenship by the judgment itself, but they should expect elevated bank scrutiny for years.

No. Any adviser who quotes you a price is making it up. Malta's response to the CJEU ruling kept the Article 10(9) power to grant citizenship for exceptional services, but stripped out every transactional element. This is now governed by the Merit Regulations (Subsidiary Legislation 188.06), as amended by Legal Notice 159 of 2025. The responsible Minister confirmed there is no longer a set amount applicants pay to acquire citizenship. Each file goes to an independent Evaluation Board, which makes a recommendation to a Minister who retains unfettered discretion. There is no quota, no fixed criteria, no fee schedule and no appeal. Financial investment alone expressly does not count as merit. In practice, this route is aimed at genuinely exceptional people, such as Olympic-calibre athletes, internationally recognised scientists and cultural figures, who have a real connection to Malta. For most families, the honest answer is that Malta no longer offers a purchasable citizenship at any price.

No. MPRP has no minimum stay requirement. The status is permanent for life, and the card is simply renewed every five years. What you must maintain is the qualifying property, a purchase from EUR 375,000 or a lease from EUR 14,000 per year, held for five years. Selling the property or ending the lease early puts the status at risk. Under Legal Notice 146 of 2025, a one-year renewable temporary residence permit was introduced so families can relocate while the file is processed, though relocating is optional. Keep in mind that residence alone does not create Maltese tax residence. If you do move and spend over 183 days, Malta's tax rules and its EUR 5,000 minimum tax can come into play, so it's worth modelling the immigration side and the tax side separately.

No. Any pitch that bridges MPRP to citizenship is a fabrication now that the MEIN investment route has been repealed. MPRP, under Subsidiary Legislation 217.26, is a residence status only. It delivers Schengen mobility and an EU base with zero physical presence, and nothing more. Ordinary naturalisation requires long, genuine residence and is discretionary in practice. MPRP does not accelerate it. If someone tells you the residence programme is a stepping stone to a Maltese passport, they are describing a route that no longer exists.

Malta uses a remittance basis for resident non-domiciled individuals, not full worldwide taxation. The standout feature is that foreign-source capital gains of a non-domiciled resident are never taxed, not even if you remit them to Malta. That is more generous than the UK's former non-dom rules ever were. Foreign income is taxable only when remitted, and since 2018 a EUR 5,000 minimum annual tax applies where foreign income reaches EUR 35,000 in the year. Below that threshold, there is no minimum. There is no wealth tax and no inheritance tax, though a 5% stamp duty applies to transfers of Maltese immovable property. The catch is that the regime only works if you are genuinely Maltese tax resident, and full CRS reporting applies. This depends on disclosure, not concealment.

The Global Residence Programme (GRP) gives a 15% flat rate on foreign income remitted to Malta. It is subject to a EUR 15,000 minimum annual tax that covers the whole family, and it does not require you to live in Malta. The binding constraint runs the other way. You must not spend more than 183 days in any single other country in a calendar year. That makes GRP a regime for people who genuinely move around, not for someone quietly tax-resident in a high-tax state. You also need a qualifying property for as long as you hold the status. That means EUR 220,000 to buy in South Malta or Gozo, EUR 275,000 elsewhere, or a lease from EUR 8,750 to EUR 9,600 a year, and the property cannot be sublet. As with the non-dom regime, foreign capital gains stay outside the Maltese net even when remitted.

Malta allows dual citizenship. So acquiring or holding Maltese status does not require you to renounce your existing nationality. For MPRP the family is defined broadly. Spouse, financially dependent children, dependent parents and dependent grandparents can all be included. Legal Notice 146 of 2025 reshaped the fees, though not entirely in the applicant's favour. Spouse, minor children and disabled adult children are now exempt from the administrative fee. But the administrative fee for each other adult dependant rose to EUR 7,500, up from EUR 5,000, and the headline administrative fee for the main applicant rose to EUR 60,000, from EUR 50,000. That EUR 60,000 is non-refundable, and most of it is paid before you know the outcome. EUR 15,000 is due within a month of submission, and EUR 45,000 only after approval in principle. Net the new spouse-and-children exemptions against the higher per-dependant and headline fees, and a family of four comes out broadly flat rather than materially cheaper.

Rarely. The permit's flat 10% rate applies only to qualifying foreign remote-work income. That means salary, freelance or consultancy income earned for foreign clients. It does not apply to investment income, dividends or capital gains, so it does nothing for a portfolio-driven balance sheet. The income threshold rose to EUR 42,000 gross per year for applications from 1 April 2024. Applicants who applied before that date keep the EUR 32,400 figure. The first year of qualifying income is exempt. Crucially, time on the Nomad Permit builds no equity. There is no permanent residence, no naturalisation clock and no security of tenure. Its main use is for a family's working-age adult who wants cheap Maltese tax residence while the wealth sits elsewhere. Otherwise, MPRP or GRP fit better.