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Hi everyone, I found this thread, which has a lot of useful advice from contributors, when researching applying for Maltese citizenship.

I have always thought I would not be eligible as I am not of Maltese descent but was born in Malta to British parents. I was recently advised that this may be incorrect and I may qualify for citizenship by descent as I was born in 1965 and my parents were not in the diplomatic service so have been looking to see if this is the case and the best way to proceed if so - and if there are any disadvantages anyone has found to having dual nationality?

@CLV65

Yes, I think you are entitled to Maltese Citizenship. According to the Malta Government agency that takes care of citzitenship:

"Who automatically acquired Maltese Citizenship by birth between 21st September 1964 and 31st July 1989?

Persons who were:

Born in Malta during the said period provided that their father, who was not himself a citizen of Malta, did not enjoy diplomatic immunity in Malta"

I have dual Maltese British citizenship myself and I have not encountered any disadvantages to this. I did not apply for Maltese citizenship when I initially became entitled to it, simply because at that point dual citizenship was not permitted, so upon being granted Maltese citizenship, I would have needed to renounce my British citizenship, which I was not prepared to do. The Maltese law was amended in 2000 to permit dual citizenship, Britain also permits dual citizenship, so I then had no problems in applying.

After Brexit, holding a Maltese passport held obvious advantages from an EU mobility perspective.  Regarding being a resident in Malta, this means I can vote in general and EU elections, but most the most important advantage for me is regarding equality in being considered for employment in Malta. Employment of Maltese and EU citizens is given preference, so an employer can only engage a third country national, if they can prove that they have not found a Maltese or EU candidate suitable for the role.

Any person born on Maltese soil is a citizen of Malta from birth. Anyone born on or after 1 August 1989 shall only be entitled to Maltese citizenship if either of their parents were citizens of Malta.

Thank you for the helpful replies and information. I will definitely contact the Maltese High Commission to start the ball rolling.....

Hi, I recently went through the process.. I was born in Malta in 1966 to British parents and came back to the UK as a baby.  Basically if you were born there after independence (sept 1964) and your parents weren't there as diplomats you're entitled to citizenship.  It was a bit of a process, I had to prove I had lived outside Malta for a period of at least 5 years... I used old utility bills.  I had to provide copies of my parents birth and marriage certificates.  I got copies online from a UK government website... You have to have them apostille stamped.I had to apply to Identity Malta for my Maltese birth certificate, you can probably apply for that online straight away, they'll send it to you, not expensive.https://komunita.gov.mt/en/services/acquisition-of-citizenship/#ByBirthThis place will tell you all about it.Once you have the citizenship letter you can apply for a passport.  That currently takes 4 working days in Malta, I'm not sure how long it takes via the consulate in London at the moment but mine took several weeks last year going through there.  I can't think of any disadvantages to dual citizenship.  The UK government don't need you to register as a dual national.  You can work in the EU without a visa.  You can stay in the EU beyond the post Brexit 90 day rule.  The only thing... If you're in Malta and need UK diplomatic help you may not get it.  Small price I think.My wife of many years has been able to apply for citizenship too. PM me if you like.  Good luck!

I got your pm and replied, but I can't tell if it's sent or not.  Have you received it?

Kevin

@kdpritchard ah thank you, I will check now….

@kdpritchard

Maltese birth certificates can be applied for and then posted to you from this site.

Note of my process so far in case it's helpful:

Application for my brother and I to get citizenship by descent. Maternal grandparents emigrated from Malta to Sydney Australia in the 1950s.

Mother, born in Australia, became a citizen by descent in 2016. She doesn't remember how long it took to process.

Form K lodged at interview at Malta Embassy in Sydney. They have been great to deal with. Took 2.5months to get the actual interview.

Documents included birth certificate, passport, 6 years proof of Australian residency, mothers birth certificate, mothers passport, fathers docs were requested but I only have a birth cert for him not a passport though apparently that is fine since it is going through the mother. Also my mothers citizenship confirmation letter and two standard passport sized images.

All documents submitted today and was advised that the application should take roughly 1 year as they are a little under resourced at the moment. He said in the past it's either been as fast as 5 months and sometimes as long as about 2 years.  I should get my citizenship certificate via mail and then I can apply for the passport i'm told.

Times are roughly in line with what has been mentioned above.

Im told my documents and form go from Sydney to Canberra for checking and if fine will then go to Malta for finalisation. I'll update once I receive it on how long it took.

Morning !

Submitted since 1 year , form I for my father and form K for me.

When i call them , they tell me is still on processing.

It s toooooo long process ....

Refreshing this thread to give you our experience.

my wife applied in Toronto in April 2024 using the  'K Registration form' as a Maltese citizen by descent from a grandparent born in Malta, my wife is age 76. We are doing this as a push from our daughter that wants to have this hand me down for future generations.

we'd made the appointment took 7 days to get that, armed with certified original & copies of passports, long form certified government Birth, Marriage & Death certificates for the maternal & paternal side of her line going back to the marriage of her great grandparents. The consulate was surprised we over did the documentation.

it was emphasized by the consulate general in Toronto that Government issued documents are key, no church issued birth, marriage or funeral director death certificates would be accepted otherwise this would delay the process.

a long process before we applied due to having to obtain official issued certified long form government documents from Canada, UK & Malta. Armed with the originals & photocopies my wife made her affidavit + swore allegiance to Malta, the consulate general endorsed/stamped every document & submitted it to Valletta, the cost was $350Cdn.

start to finish appointment was 45 minutes.

its now a sit & wait. I'll post back if & when it'd done.

    Refreshing this thread to give you our experience.
my wife applied in Toronto in April 2024 using the  'K Registration form' as a Maltese citizen by descent from a grandparent born in Malta, my wife is age 76. We are doing this as a push from our daughter that wants to have this hand me down for future generations.


we'd made the appointment took 7 days to get that, armed with certified original & copies of passports, long form certified government Birth, Marriage & Death certificates for the maternal & paternal side of her line going back to the marriage of her great grandparents. The consulate was surprised we over did the documentation.

it was emphasized by the consulate general in Toronto that Government issued documents are key, no church issued birth, marriage or funeral director death certificates would be accepted otherwise this would delay the process.

a long process before we applied due to having to obtain official issued certified long form government documents from Canada, UK & Malta. Armed with the originals & photocopies my wife made her affidavit + swore allegiance to Malta, the consulate general endorsed/stamped every document & submitted it to Valletta, the cost was $350Cdn.

start to finish appointment was 45 minutes.

its now a sit & wait. I'll post back if & when it'd done.
   

    -@porticoman Welcome to the forum. The cheaper way is the more strenious way. If you have 900 000 Euros spare money you can buy the Maltese passport  without a delay. I know about a Dutch business man who started his own business in Malta employing 37 people. He got his Maltese passport without any proof of Maltese heritage. Just consider the $ 350 CND a donation to Malta and wait patiently.Eventually you will get the Maltese passport provided that your documents are genuine and do not originate from Nigeria.

@hanselmar5

-@porticoman Welcome to the forum.

The cheaper way is the more strenuous way. If you have 900 000 Euros spare money you can buy the Maltese passport  without a delay. I know about a Dutch business man who started his own business in Malta employing 37 people. He got his Maltese passport without any proof of Maltese heritage.

Just consider the $ 350 CND a donation to Malta and wait patiently.Eventually you will get the Maltese passport provided that your documents are genuine and do not originate from Nigeria.

I suppose ....

better still is if someone already has an EU passport like yourself.

for others other than being born in Malta or having an EU passport from one of the 27 or so countries within the EEA or EU that are unable to buy their way in with €900,000 that want a Maltese citizenship go through the registration by application process or by naturalization..

FWIW no stress going through the K form application, without fake documents.

I shall post back when the citizenship has been approved.

@porticoman

Good luck with your venture. I think if you are patient enough you will succeed. By the way when you click on " More above on the blue line" you will find at least 50 people from the huge nation of Canada who came to the tiny nation of Malta. Here in Gozo where I live I know at least 2 Maltese families who were residing in Canada for several years before they decided to come back to this country, without having a forest ,snow in winter and grizzly bears to hunt.

I've just applied to the London embassy using form I for my mother, and form K for myself.

They are refusing to give any ETA at all, saying that post-brexit they simply refuse. I tried to get one politely by going "no more than a year?" and got back a eyebrow raise. So we shall hang on and see how long it takes! I am 400GBP poorer than when I went into that embassy.

@EuroBlend It took me 18 months and at the time in I was told "don't call us we'll call you " and that's exactly how it happened. I live in Ireland so did mine at the Dublin embassy cost me €337 including the passport.

    @EuroBlend It took me 18 months and at the time in I was told "don't call us we'll call you " and that's exactly how it happened. I live in Ireland so did mine at the Dublin embassy cost me €337 including the passport.         -@Eddie B-A

^^^^ agree with this. My wife applied in April 2024, we wont call or pester them, simply wait for it. The key for an application is having all the documentation, saving time for the folks in Valetta not having to do any searches.

@porticoman Yeah we gave them every bit of documentation they could ever imagine, and checked it all with them in their high commission. So should be good to go. I won't pester them, worth being patient for.

Hopefully they inform of result via email as would be beneficial over waiting for the post.

@porticoman Hello!! i am just wondering if there has been any movement in your process ? I also  applied in April in Toronto (live in Calgary) and have had nothing yet. I am not worried although reading through this thread I see two years posted alot and that is kind if worrying me. just thought id ask since I was scrolling through again lol.

Thanks!

@Michiwerks42, nothing yet & as I posted previously its a sit & wait.  I shall post back if & when I get something back from the consulate. Please post back as soon as you hear something on your application. Good Luck.

Update to my wifes application. In January 2025 the Toronto Maltese consulate did a follow up noting the final application package was submitted to Valetta in August 2024. An email arrived today saying that the citizenship certificate is ready for pick up. Timeframe 9 mths, however total timeframe of 14 mths from when the application at the consulate was made was April 2024 where my wife signed on the dotted line, swore allegiance, the consul general signed off everything including stamping the docs..

So at that point we figured the file was complete.

However it wasn't, the application was incomplete because they wanted proof original of her great grandfathers government docs from Malta as well s another govt of Ontario reissued marriage certificate of her Maltese grandfather/British grandmothers marriage (even though we had submitted the original 1918 one with the April application)....all docs were completed by July 2024, file sent to Valetta August 2024.

All I can say having gone through this process is that have all original or certified documents, in our case this was documents going back to 1882.

Within the next few days my wife will pick up her citizenship certificate & apply for her Passport.

Next step is for me & our children to apply for Maltese citizenship.

let me back up on that last post above.

in Toronto, Canada the initial application/interview April 2024, at the time my wife was 76 years of age....why are we doing this, its our children pushing the button.

from initial April application, there was a back & forth, added 2 docs, final application sent to Valetta August 2024.

I followed up January 2025, sit & wait.

email from Toronto consulate 10 June certificate ready to pick up.

11:30am local time 12 June we picked up the certificate & what would you have guessed, the certificate is signed dated 31 January 2025.

I never asked the question "between 31 January-10 June, what happened"

putting that behind us I have form B, our adult children have form K to apply for ours.

Hi,

Wanted to add my update, application sent 25th March Via London High Commission, Still waiting as of today. Me and my mother did a dual application (Form I & K) will do a update.

If you look at the original  post it was in 2023

Just to give you some idea of how long these processes  take in Malta,

Notice CLV didn't reply after 2923.

Good luck

I applied through the Maltese High Commission in London and now officially have my certificate in hand! 🎉

Here’s a detailed timeline of how things went for me:

    •    12 July 2024 – Submitted documents to the London embassy

    •    14 February 2025 – Application approved (no notification from the High Commission, but this is the date shown on the certificate)

    •    6 June 2025 – Received confirmation from the High Commission that the certificate was ready for collection

    •    9 July 2025 – Submitted birth registration form and passport application form

When I had notification my certificate was ready for collection I immediately sent off my birth certificate to be apostilled & booked a passport & birth registration appointment, as they only have appointments a few weeks away (so worth getting it in asap and sorting out apostles in the meantime which is what I did.)

If any questions let me know, happy to walk through the process as it is.. quirky.