Residence permit for the purpose of study
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Residence permit for the purpose of study as of 2026-08-07[6][8] 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) | Residence permit for the purpose of study as of 2026-08-07[6][8] |
| Legal basis | 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), made under the Immigration Act (Cap. 217); L.N. 212 of 2018 as amended by Act XXIX of 2019, in force 6 July 2018. Reg. 1(2) transposes Directive (EU) 2016/801 except the optional provisions on other voluntary service, pupil exchange schemes or educational projects, and au pairing. as of 2026-08-07[6][8] |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-07[6][8] A residence permit issued by Identita. Where the course exceeds ninety days and the applicant needs a visa to reach Malta, a separate student national visa (D-visa) is issued by the Central Visa Unit with its own document list and fee scale – recorded as a process stage. |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA, EFTA as of 2026-08-07[6][8] |
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| Minimum age | Not established from a qualifying source Not stated in S.L. 217.22 or on the Identita study pages. |
| Criminal-record condition | Not established from a qualifying source No clean-record condition is stated for the study route. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | 1 year as of 2024-09-20[3][8] Reg. 16(2): the period of validity for students shall be at least one year, or the duration of studies where that is shorter, and shall be subject to renewal unless excluded under reg. 18; for students covered by Union or multilateral programmes comprising mobility measures, or by an agreement between two or more higher education institutions, it shall be at least two years or the duration of studies where shorter. Reg. 16(6) allows validity to be capped at the validity of the travel document, and Identita requires travel documents to have at least eight months' validity at submission. |
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| How the initial term is set | matches the course |
| Renewable | Yes as of 2021-01-01[8] |
| Maximum total duration | Not established from a qualifying source Reg. 16(3) allows the Chief Executive Officer to determine that the total time of residence for studies may not exceed the maximum duration of studies provided in national law; no such maximum figure was located. |
| Work rights | hours capped as of 2026-08-07[1][3][8] Reg. 21(1): outside his study time a student is entitled to be employed and may be entitled to exercise self-employed economic activity, provided he holds an employment licence issued under article 11(3) of the Immigration Act. Reg. 21(2) requires the employment authorities, in consultation with the education authorities and the Chief Executive Officer, to determine the maximum hours following an examination of the labour market situation, which shall not be less than fifteen hours per week. Reg. 6 proviso allows an application to be treated as inadmissible or rejected where students are or will be in an employment relationship. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | No as of 2021-03-11[7] S.L. 217.05 reg. 3(2)(a): the long-term residence regulations do not apply to third-country nationals who reside in Malta in order to pursue studies or vocational training. Reg. 4(2): in calculating the five years required by reg. 4(1), periods of residence for the reasons stated in reg. 3(2)(a), (e) and (f) shall not be taken into account. This is a total exclusion, not a fractional counting rule, so citizenship_counting_factor is not recorded. |
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Requirements
| Enrolment status required | admitted as of 2024-09-20[3][8] Reg. 2 defines a student as a third-country national who has been accepted by a higher education institution and is admitted to Malta to pursue as a main activity a full-time course of study leading to a higher education qualification recognised by the Malta Qualifications Recognition Information Centre. Reg. 11(1)(a) requires evidence that he has been accepted by a higher education institution to follow a course of study. Acceptance must therefore already exist at application; enrolment is not separately required. Identita names two different licensing authorities for the institution on two different documents – the National Commission for Higher Education on its study page and the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority on form N.01 – both requiring MQRIC recognition at MQF level 5. Form N.01 adds that tuition hours must exceed fifteen per week. |
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| Means requirement | 0.60 × national equivalised income threshold per year as of 2024-09-20[3][8] |
| Work-hours cap | Sources disagree as of 2026-08-07[1][3][4][8] |
| Post-study route exists | Yes as of 2026-08-07[2][8] |
| Post-study permit duration | 9 months as of 2026-08-07[2][8] Reg. 22(1): a period of at least nine months. Identita states the permit allows a stay of up to nine months, can be granted only once, and cannot be renewed or extended. |
| Post-study income requirement | 0.60 × national equivalised income threshold per year as of 2025-08-18[4] Form N.03: funds amounting to at least 60 per cent of the national equivalised income threshold, calculated on the equivalent household size indicated by the National Statistics Office, for the period of nine months. |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-08-07[6][8] Reg. 7(4): the application is submitted and examined either when the applicant is residing outside Malta or when he is residing in Malta as the holder of a valid residence permit or long-stay visa, and the Chief Executive Officer may accept an application from a person who holds neither but is legally present in Malta. Reg. 7(5): the application is submitted by the third-country national and endorsed by the host entity. Identita requires visa-exempt applicants to apply within three months of entering EU territory – stated as ninety days on form N.01 – and states applications must be submitted by the applicant in person while in Malta, through the Expatriates Unit Portal. |
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| Statutory processing time | 90 days as of 2021-01-01[8] Reg. 31(1): a decision as soon as possible and in any event not later than ninety days from submission of the complete application, or sixty days where the admission procedure relates to an approved host entity under regs. 9 and 14. Reg. 31(2): where the supporting documentation is incomplete the applicant is notified within one week and has two weeks to supply it, the clock being suspended meanwhile. Reg. 31(5) gives a right of appeal to the Immigration Appeals Board. |
| Fees |
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| Stages |
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Physical presence
| none stated | to keep the permit as of 2024-09-20[3][8] Neither S.L. 217.22 nor form N.01 states a day count or absence limit for the study permit. The operative continuity condition is the course itself: tuition hours must exceed fifteen per week, and reg. 18 governs withdrawal and refusal of renewal. |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Not established from a qualifying source S.L. 217.22 provides for family members of researchers only. Reg. 23, headed 'Researchers' family members', applies the Family Reunification Regulations with derogations removing the reasonable-prospects and minimum-residence conditions, requiring a decision within ninety days, tying the family permit's expiry to the researcher's authorisation and removing any time limit on family members' labour market access. There is no equivalent provision for students, and the regulations neither admit nor exclude students' dependants in terms; no Identita page addresses it. |
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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 | 8 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 8 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2021-01-01 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-07 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-11 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Central Visa Unit – Student visa and employment
Identita · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [2] Frequently Asked Questions – Expatriates – Study
Identita · official guidance · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [3] Form N.01 – Application for a residence permit for the purpose of study (version 2.2)
Identita · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2024-09-20 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [4] Form N.03 – Stay for the purpose of job-searching or entrepreneurship (version 1.2)
Identita · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2025-08-18 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [5] List of required documents – Student National Visa (version 2.1)
Identita · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2025-08-13 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [6] Study, Research, Trainees, Volunteers and Interns
Identita · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [7] Status of Long-term Residents (Third Country Nationals) Regulations (S.L. 217.05), consolidated text
Legislation Unit, Office of the State Advocate (Legislation Malta) · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2021-03-11 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [8] 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