Policy on family members of third-country nationals who do not qualify for family reunification by means of the Family Reunification Regulations S.L. 217.06
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Family Members Policy as of 2026-08-07[1][2] Malta enacts and publishes in parallel official English and Maltese texts and English is an official language of Malta; the official English name is therefore recorded identically as the local name rather than as a translation. |
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| Official name (English) | Policy on family members of third-country nationals who do not qualify for family reunification by means of the Family Reunification Regulations S.L. 217.06 as of 2025-04-04[1] Identita's own title for the document. Its family-member pages refer to it simply as the Family Members Policy. |
| Legal basis | Not established from a qualifying source The policy cites no instrument. It is an administrative policy published by Identita, version 5.3, publishing date 1 May 2021 and last updated 4 April 2025, operating alongside the statutory route rather than under it, and expressly addressed to third-country nationals who do not qualify under S.L. 217.06. Residence permits are issued under the Immigration Act (Cap. 217) but no subsidiary legislation implementing the policy was located. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-07[1][2] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA, EFTA as of 2025-04-04[1] |
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| Minimum age | Not established from a qualifying source No general minimum age. A spouse must be twenty-one years of age, recorded on eligible_relations. |
| Criminal-record condition | Yes as of 2025-04-04[1] Applications for a residence permit submitted by applicants over the age of twelve are vetted by the Police Immigration Office, and the application will be rejected if the applicant is determined to be a threat to public security or public policy. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | Not established from a qualifying source The policy states no permit duration. It states only that permits issued to family members under the guidelines shall be renewed only if the conditions continue to be satisfied, and that the policy does not apply where the sponsor's residence authorisation will not be extended beyond one year. |
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| Renewable | Yes as of 2025-04-04[1] Permits issued to family members under the guidelines shall only be renewed if the conditions continue to be satisfied. |
| Work rights | authorisation required as of 2025-04-04[1] Residence permits issued to family members under the guidelines do not grant them the automatic right to work in Malta; a family member who wishes to take up employment must change the purpose of his stay by applying to the Expatriates Unit for a single permit. The one exception stated is for dependants who are students of the Institute of Tourism Studies, MCAST or the University of Malta taking up an apprenticeship, placement or internship under Cap. 576, who may keep the same residence permit and be issued a Jobsplus licence covering that activity. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Not established from a qualifying source The policy does not address long-term residence. |
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Requirements
| Who can sponsor | temporary permit holder as of 2025-04-04[1] The policy is addressed to third-country nationals holding a Maltese residence permit who do not qualify under S.L. 217.06 – in Identita's published view, the general category of migrants and especially those coming for the purposes of work, who are taken not to have reasonable prospects of obtaining permanent residence. It does not apply to third-country nationals whose residence authorisations will not be extended beyond one year. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, minor child, adult dependent child as of 2025-04-04[1] As above. Note that this policy admits dependent unmarried adult family members, whom S.L. 217.06 does not. |
| Sponsor income requirement | 1 × median annual basic salary per year as of 2025-04-04[1] |
| Sponsor accommodation requirement | Not established from a qualifying source The policy does not state an accommodation condition. It does require, for each dependant, a health insurance policy with a minimum coverage limit of EUR 100,000 covering outpatient and inpatient treatment including hospitalisation in Malta and other European countries, valid for the entire validity of the residence permit, and, for children of compulsory schooling age, an application for private schooling in Malta. |
| Sponsor waiting period | 12 months as of 2025-04-04[1] A sponsor may submit an application for family reunification only after a minimum of twelve calendar months from the issuance date of his initial residence permit; applications submitted before that period are considered inadmissible. The sponsor must hold a residence permit with a minimum validity of one year. Identita will consider waiving the twelve-month period where the sponsor holds a single permit on the basis of the Key Employee Initiative or the Specialist Employee Initiative. |
| Pre-entry language test | Not established from a qualifying source The policy states no language or integration test. |
| Who qualifies as a sponsor |
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Process
| Where to apply from | from abroad only as of 2025-04-04[1] Requests must be presented to the Expatriates Unit before the family members are physically present in Malta; if they are in Malta at the time of application the application shall be considered inadmissible, unless they are minor children who were born in Malta. |
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| Observed processing time | 60 to 60 days as of 2025-04-04[1] |
| Fees |
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Physical presence
| none stated | to keep the permit as of 2025-04-04[1] The policy states no day count or absence limit for the family member once admitted. Its only presence rule bites before admission: the family members must not be physically present in Malta when the request is presented. |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2025-04-04[1] |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, minor child, adult dependent child as of 2025-04-04[1] The sponsor's spouse, who shall be twenty-one years of age and engaged in a monogamous marriage by law, polygamous spouses not being admitted where a spouse has already joined the sponsor; the unmarried minor children, eighteen years or under, including adopted children, of the sponsor and of his spouse; the unmarried minor children, including adopted children, of the sponsor or the spouse where one parent has custody and the children are dependent on that parent; and unmarried adult family members, who may still be admitted if the sponsor provides evidence that they are dependent on the family's household, mainly financially or physically. |
| Family members' work rights | authorisation required as of 2025-04-04[1] |
Your next step
Read the requirements above considering your own situation: the income multiple, the absence limits, who you can bring. Check the country record for the reference figure those amounts are calculated from, and for anything that has changed recently.
The next step is your own case. That assessment is legal work. Create profile for our assistance in this.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 2 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 2 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2025-04-04 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-07 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-11 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Policy on family members of third-country nationals who do not qualify for family reunification by means of the Family Reunification Regulations S.L. 217.06 (version 5.3)
Identita · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2025-04-04 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [2] Family Members Policy – application and fees
Identita · fee schedule · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-07