Family Reunification
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Family Reunification as of 2026-08-07[1][5] 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) | Family Reunification as of 2026-08-07[1][5] |
| Legal basis | Family Reunification Regulations (S.L. 217.06), made under the Immigration Act (Cap. 217); L.N. 150 of 2007, in force 5 June 2007, as amended by L.N. 148 of 2017 and L.N. 166 of 2018. Reg. 1(2): the purpose of the regulations is to implement Directive 2003/86/EC on the right to family reunification. as of 2026-08-07[1][5] |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-07[1][5] Reg. 14(2): family members are granted a first residence permit of at least one year's duration, which is renewable. |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA, EFTA as of 2025-04-04[2][5] |
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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 or over, which is recorded on eligible_relations rather than here because it applies to one relation and not to the applicant class as a whole. |
| Criminal-record condition | Not established from a qualifying source S.L. 217.06 states no clean-record condition. Identita's separate Family Members Policy states that applications by applicants over the age of 12 are vetted by the Police Immigration Office and rejected where the applicant is considered a threat to public security or public policy; that statement governs the policy route, not this one. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | 1 year as of 2010-07-22[5] Reg. 14(2): family members are granted a first residence permit of at least one year's duration, provided that the duration granted shall, in principle, not extend beyond the expiry date of the residence permit held by the sponsor. |
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| How the initial term is set | matches the sponsor's permit |
| Renewable | Yes as of 2010-07-22[5] Reg. 14(2). Reg. 19 allows the Director to withdraw or refuse to renew where the sponsor's residence comes to an end and the family member does not yet enjoy an autonomous right of residence under regs. 16 and 17. Reg. 18(a) proviso: on renewal the family members' contributions to household income are taken into account where the sponsor fails to prove sufficient resources without recourse to social assistance. |
| Work rights | authorisation required as of 2010-07-22[5] Reg. 15: family members are entitled, in the same way as the sponsor, to access to education, to employment and self-employed activity, and to vocational guidance and training. The proviso qualifies this: where the sponsor has access to employment and self-employment without an assessment of the labour market situation, family members do not have equal access for the first twelve months following their arrival in Malta, and during those twelve months their access is subject to an assessment of the labour market situation and to an employment licence. Reg. 23(e) of S.L. 217.22 removes any such time limit for researchers' family members, and reg. 15(6) of S.L. 217.27 does the same for EU Blue Card holders' family members. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Not established from a qualifying source S.L. 217.06 does not address EU long-term resident status. It provides instead for an autonomous residence permit: reg. 16(1) entitles the spouse, or a child who has reached majority, to an autonomous residence permit on application after five years' residence in Malta, provided the family member has not been granted a residence permit for reasons other than family reunification, the Director being able to limit the grant to the spouse alone where the marriage has broken down. Reg. 16(2): the autonomous permit is valid for one year and is renewable. Reg. 17 requires an autonomous permit to be issued to a widow or widower and to minor and adult children on the death of the sponsor, and to a person in particularly difficult circumstances following the breakdown of the marriage, including domestic violence against spouses and children, forced marriage, and the forced return by the sponsor of family members to the country of origin. |
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Requirements
| Who can sponsor | temporary permit holder as of 2025-04-04[2][5] Reg. 2 defines a sponsor as a third-country national residing lawfully in Malta who applies for the members of his family to join him. Maltese citizens and Union citizens are outside the instrument, and reg. 3(2) excludes applicants for refugee status, persons on temporary protection or awaiting a decision on it, and persons on a subsidiary form of protection or awaiting a decision on it. The class is therefore holders of an ordinary Maltese residence permit meeting the reg. 3(1) qualifying test, recorded through sponsor_qualifier. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, minor child as of 2010-07-22[5] As reg. 4(1), above. Parents, adult dependent children and unregistered partners are not admitted by S.L. 217.06; they appear only in Identita's separate Family Members Policy and, for refugees' ascendants, in reg. 24. |
| Sponsor income requirement | 1 × average annual gross salary (Labour Force Survey) per year as of 2024-09-20[4][5] |
| Sponsor accommodation requirement | Yes as of 2024-09-20[4][5] Reg. 12(b): accommodation regarded as normal for a comparable family in Malta and meeting the general health and safety standards in force in Malta. Identita's form G.01 requires an architect attestation, a copy of the lease agreement and a copy of the Housing Authority's approval letter registering the lease. Reg. 12(c) additionally requires sickness insurance in respect of all risks for the sponsor and the members of his family, and form G.01 sets the documentary standard at a policy with a minimum coverage limit of EUR 100,000 covering medical treatment including hospitalisation in Malta and, if necessary, other European countries, valid for the entire first year of the residence permit. Reg. 26(1) exempts a refugee whose family relationship pre-dated entry from reg. 12(b), (c) and (d), and reg. 27(1)(b) deems a late-applying refugee's resources sufficient if equivalent to the statutory minimum wage in Malta. |
| Sponsor waiting period | 2 years as of 2024-09-20[4][5] |
| Pre-entry language test | No as of 2021-01-01[5][6] S.L. 217.06 imposes no pre-entry test. Reg. 14(3) is post-decision and discretionary: the sponsor and the family members may be required to attend and successfully complete courses in the Maltese language. Reg. 23(b) of S.L. 217.22 confirms the timing indirectly, providing that by way of derogation from regs. 4(1), 4(2) and 14(3) of the Family Reunification Regulations the integration conditions and measures referred to there may only be applied after the persons concerned have been granted a residence permit. |
| Who qualifies as a sponsor |
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| Sponsor and relation matrix |
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Process
| Where to apply from | from abroad only as of 2010-07-22[5] Reg. 8: the application is submitted by the sponsor and examined by the Director when the family members are residing outside Malta, provided that in appropriate circumstances the Director may accept an application submitted while the family members are already in Malta. Reg. 5: the application is submitted to the Director by the sponsor. Identita requires submission online through the Expatriates Unit Portal and travel documents with at least eight months' validity at submission. |
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| Statutory processing time | 9 months as of 2010-07-22[5] Reg. 9(1): written notification of the decision as soon as possible and in any event no later than nine months from lodging, extendable in exceptional circumstances linked to the complexity of the examination. This is the full period Directive 2003/86/EC permits. Reg. 9(3): a failure to decide within that period passes the application automatically to the Immigration Appeals Board. Reg. 9(2) requires reasons on rejection and reg. 10 requires the best interests of minor children to be taken into consideration. Reg. 23 of S.L. 217.22 and reg. 16(c) of S.L. 217.21 shorten the clock to ninety days for the family members of researchers and of intra-corporate transferees respectively, and reg. 15(4) of S.L. 217.27 does the same for the family members of EU Blue Card holders. |
| Fees |
Physical presence
| maximum consecutive absence | 6 months · to qualify for permanent residence as of 2010-07-22[5] |
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| maximum total absence | 10 months · to qualify for permanent residence as of 2010-07-22[5] Reg. 16(3), the aggregate limb: absences totalling no more than ten months within the five years. Same applies_to caveat as the preceding rule. |
Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2010-07-22[5] The route is itself the family route; this block records that the persons admitted under it are the family members named in reg. 4(1). |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, minor child as of 2010-07-22[5] Reg. 4(1): the sponsor's spouse, who shall be twenty-one years of age or over, subject to a proviso that where the sponsor already has a spouse living with him in Malta the Director shall not authorise the reunification of a further spouse in a polygamous marriage; the unmarried minor children of the sponsor and of his spouse, including children adopted in a manner recognised by Maltese law; and the unmarried minor children, including adopted children, of the sponsor or of the spouse where that person has custody and the children are dependent on him. Reg. 4(2) allows reunification of children in shared custody where the other party sharing custody agrees. Reg. 2 defines a minor as a person who has not attained the age of eighteen. Reg. 24(1) adds, for unaccompanied minor refugees only, first-degree relatives in the direct ascending line and, in their absence, a legal guardian or other family member. |
| Family members' work rights | authorisation required as of 2010-07-22[5] Reg. 15(b), as above: subject to a labour market assessment and an employment licence for the first twelve months after arrival. |
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.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 6 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 6 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2010-07-22 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-07 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-11 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Family Member residence permits
Identita · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [2] 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 - [3] Family Reunification
Identita · fee schedule · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [4] Form G.01 – Application for family reunification (version 3.2)
Identita · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2024-09-20 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [5] Family Reunification Regulations (S.L. 217.06), consolidated text
Legislation Unit, Office of the State Advocate (Legislation Malta) · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2010-07-22 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [6] Conditions of Entry and Residence of Third-Country Nationals for the Purposes of Research, Studies, Training and Voluntary Service in the Mobility Project for Young People: Voluntary Projects Regulations (S.L. 217.22), consolidated text
Legislation Unit, Office of the State Advocate (Legislation Malta) · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2021-01-01 · Accessed 2026-08-07