Your first weeks in Malta: a registered lease, a complete file and a collection letter

The first weeks in Malta are manageable once you know that everything hangs on one card: your residence card from Identità. Registration is free; what it costs is mainly the deposit and the first rent of your home. The find at Identità: on a complete file the service responds within 48 working hours with a date for the biometric appointment, but an invitation does not mean your application has been approved — another check follows. The trap is at the front: without a registered lease you have no proof of address, and the Maltese lease law calls an unregistered contract void.

Why does everything start with the lease?

Because almost every counter wants proof of address. The landlord must register the contract with the Housing Authority within thirty days of the start date; if he does not, you may do it at his expense. The contract must have an inventory, signed by all parties. Whoever works in Malta for the first time also hands proof of address to their employer, such as the lease. How renting works further is in living and renting in Malta.

How does registration with Identità work?

You submit the application online through the Expatriates Portal, and you can only do so once you actually live in Malta. If you have no eID yet, you create a temporary account via the alternative login. After your complete file the invitation to the biometric appointment follows, with the form and the list of documents. At the appointment you bring the originals of everything you uploaded, and you receive a biometric receipt: a temporary document with your name, address, photograph and the registration number of your card.

Then an additional check follows. Keep an eye on your email, including your spam folder, and on the status in the portal. If it says "Collection letter posted to registered address", the application has been approved and a collection letter comes by post. Which papers you need per ground of residence is in staying in Malta; the portal and the card in the e-Residence document and the eID.

Which deadlines run?

What	Deadline	Who
Register your residence	if you stay longer than three months	you, at Identità
Register the lease	within 30 days of the start date	the landlord
Response to a complete file	within 48 working hours	Identità
Registration of your job	on the first working day, at the latest within 4 working days	your employer, at Jobsplus
Collect the card without a collection letter	at the earliest 15 days after the letter was sent	you
Collect the card	within 6 months of the collection letter, and only in person	you, in Msida

Only you can collect your card, and you have six months. Identità does not hand the card to anyone else, and the collection period runs for six months from the date of the collection letter. The desk in Msida is open Monday to Friday, from half past seven to one in the afternoon. Bring your biometric receipt and the collection letter. If the letter has not arrived after fifteen days while the portal says it was sent, you can collect with your receipt, your passport, your proof of address and a declaration from your landlord.

What do you arrange with the receipt and the card?

Healthcare. If you come with an S1 from the CAK, you take your biometric receipt and the S1 to the Entitlement Unit, next to St Luke's Hospital in Gwardamangia. There you get the Certificate of Entitlement, which you then pass on to Identità. See healthcare in Malta.

Work. Your employer registers you with Jobsplus with the engagement form. Working is allowed before your card arrives.

The bank. A bank may not refuse you a basic account because you have just moved there; see bank account in Malta.

The bus. Since 1 October 2022 public transport has been free for those living in Malta or Gozo, with a personalised Tallinja card. You apply with your name, your identity or residence document or passport, your email address, date of birth and mobile number. Malta has no train; the bus is the network.

The car. If it came along, registration runs through Transport Malta, with deadlines of its own — see your car to Malta.

In which order this falls for you, with the deadlines monitored, is in the step-by-step plan for Malta.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.2: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Malta or go straight to step 4.2 in the open plan.