Malta Startup Residence Programme
Route status
Active as of 2025-08-27[1][2][3]
Open to new applications under the rules recorded below.
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Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Malta Startup Residence Programme as of 2025-08-27[2][3] The programme is published under this English name; no Maltese name appears in the official documents used. |
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| Official name (English) | Malta Startup Residence Programme as of 2025-08-27[2][3] |
| Legal basis | Not established from a qualifying source |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2025-08-27[2][3] A three-year residence permit, extendable by a further five years for founders and co-founders. Residence cards are issued by Identita. Third-country nationals who need a Schengen visa may apply for one after the Letter of Approval in Principle. |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA, EFTA as of 2025-08-27[2][3] |
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| Minimum age | 18 as of 2025-08-27[2] Founders, co-founders and core employees must be eighteen years or older. |
| Criminal-record condition | Yes as of 2025-08-27[2] Applicants must have no criminal record or pending criminal charges and must not pose a potential threat to national security, public policy, public health or the public interest. They must also not have had a previous application for permanent residency, residency-by-investment status or citizenship rejected in Malta or abroad. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | 3 years as of 2025-08-27[2][3] Founders and co-founders, their family members, and core employees all receive an initial three-year permit. |
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| How the initial term is set | fixed |
| Renewable | Yes as of 2025-08-27[2][3] Renewed once Malta Enterprise and Residency Malta confirm that the startup is still ongoing and the founder or co-founder still meets the programme's eligibility criteria. |
| Renewal duration | 5 years as of 2025-08-27[2][3] Five years for founders and co-founders and for their family members. Core employees and their family members are extended by three years instead. |
| Work rights | authorisation required as of 2025-08-27[2] Founders and co-founders residing in Malta must be registered as employees of the Maltese startup before residence cards are collected, and must hold a Jobsplus employment licence (EUR 690 for the first three years, EUR 1,150 for the following five). The permit does not confer general labour-market access: family members' permits expressly do not grant automatic access to the labour market, although they may apply separately to take up employment. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Not established from a qualifying source Neither the eligibility document nor the programme portal states whether time on this permit counts towards EU long-term resident status under S.L. 217.05. |
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Requirements
| Minimum capital | EUR 25,000 as of 2025-08-27[2] The incorporated startup in Malta must place a tangible investment and/or paid-up share capital of not less than EUR 25,000. Where more than four co-founders apply, an additional EUR 10,000 is required per additional co-founder; the maximum number of co-founders eligible for the programme is six. The requirement sits on the company, not on the individual applicant. |
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| Business plan required | Yes as of 2025-08-27[2] A business plan on the provided template is mandatory, covering company/group overview, the Malta project and three-year financials, and must be submitted both when applying for the programme alone and when applying together with Malta Enterprise financial assistance. |
| Endorsement required | Yes as of 2025-08-27[2] The company's business plan must be approved by Malta Enterprise, and the company must be in line with the requirements of the National FDI Screening Office. Founders and co-founders must collaborate with Malta Enterprise for the validity of the permit, including annual or bi-annual monitoring reports. |
| Innovation criterion | Yes as of 2025-08-27[2] The startup must be engaged in manufacturing, software development, industrial services analogous to manufacturing, health/biotechnology/pharmaceuticals/life sciences, eco startups in the blue, green and sustainable industries, or other innovative economic activities enabled through knowledge and technology. It must have been registered for no longer than seven years globally, must not have taken over another enterprise's activity or been formed through a merger, and must meet at least two of three criteria: potential to generate income from various geographical markets; products or services that are new, innovative or substantially improved; or processes that are new or substantially improved. |
| Jobs to be created | Not established from a qualifying source No minimum number of jobs is stated for founders and co-founders. Employment in the Malta-based company is a required section of the business plan. |
| Own means requirement | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value as of 2025-08-27[2] |
Process
| Where to apply from | Not established from a qualifying source The eligibility document does not state where the application is filed. It notes that third-country nationals who need a Schengen visa may apply for one after the Letter of Approval in Principle, and that core employees apply online after the founders' and co-founders' permit is approved, but neither establishes a rule. |
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| Fees |
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| Quota |
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Physical presence
| registration only | to keep the permit as of 2025-08-27[2] No day count is stated. The eligibility document requires founders and co-founders to have a physical and tangible presence in Malta – living in Malta and paying their taxes there – and requires the startup to be fully incorporated in Malta and registered with the relevant local authorities, with the founders and co-founders residing in Malta registered as its employees, before residence cards are collected. The Agencies may request documentation at any time to prove the conditions are still met. |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2025-08-27[2] |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, unmarried partner, minor child, adult dependent child as of 2025-08-27[2] Spouse, de-facto partner, minor children, and adult sons or daughters principally dependent on the founder, co-founder or core employee. |
| Family may apply at the same time | Yes as of 2025-08-27[2] Immediate family members must be included in the first application even if they do not initially intend to relocate; later requests to add family members are handled case by case and approval is not automatic. |
| Family members' work rights | authorisation required as of 2025-08-27[2] The residence permit issued to family members does not grant automatic access to the labour market; they may use the existing processes to apply to take up employment in Malta. |
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.
Profile benefits
- A 30-minute call with our consultant, who reads your profile first.
- An offer for legal support built around your case, covering the whole process.
Verification
| Sources cited | 3 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 3 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2025-08-27 |
| Newest as-of date | 2025-08-27 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-11 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Residency Malta Agency – home page (programme enumeration)
Residency Malta Agency · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [2] Malta Startup Residence Programme – Eligibility and Requirements, Version 4.2
Residency Malta Agency · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2025-08-27 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [3] Startup Residence Programme
Residency Malta Agency · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-07