Step-by-step plan · No visa required

The step-by-step plan for Malta

From "we want this" to being settled, in 35 steps. Read phase 1 in full here. Test your departure date along the way. Then you'll know whether you want the rest.

35 steps5 phases56 official sources8 only for your situationchecked on 9 September 2026

Phase 1 starts below ↓The whole plan: € 199 one-off, no subscription.

What it looks like

Not a PDF, not a checklist. A plan that knows what needs to happen now.

Every step sits in its place in the order, with the lead time, the counter and the official source. You tick off, your partner ticks along, and the plan counts back from your departure date: what has to start when, and what is running now.

Below is phase 1, exactly as it appears in the plan.

The dashboard of the step-by-step plan for Malta: the current phase, the open steps, the next step and the deadline bar.

The route

1
Orientation
5 steps
Open · You are here
2
Closing the Netherlands
14 steps
In your plan
3
Move
3 steps
In your plan
4
Registration on Malta
6 steps
In your plan
5
Arrival
7 steps
In your plan

Phase 1 is the question "can we, and do we want to?". From phase 2 the arranging begins.

Phase 1 · Orientation

5 of 5 steps open

Malta is 316 square kilometres of English-speaking EU, three hours' flight from Schiphol — and the most densely populated country in Europe. The two lessons of this phase: the tax dream is smaller for Dutch people than the brochures promise, and the winter is colder than you think — indoors.

By the end of phase 1 you know the Maltese chain, you know what the remittance rule means for your income, the choice between Malta and Gozo has been made and the family stands behind the decision.

Step 1.1

Understand the system: register within three months

Lead time:: reading step
Costs:: none

As an EU citizen you don't need a permit, but for a stay longer than three months you do need a registration: the e-Residence document from Identità. The application runs online via the Expatriates Portal, and the rule that decides everything is simple: Identità only processes a complete file. Whoever lodges complete gets a biometrics appointment within 48 working hours; whoever lodges half goes to the back of the queue.

Everything hangs on that one card afterwards: your eID for online government, your identification at the bank, your enrolment in healthcare. So the chain is: home, file, biometrics, card — and the step-by-step plan holds that order for you.

The e-Residence document and the eID: the Maltese chain

Checked against the official source

The official sources for this step

Seen

Step 1.2

Choose your Malta: the bustle, the south or Gozo

Lead time:: an evening of research, and the conversation about it
Costs:: none

Malta is small, but the differences are big. Sliema and St Julian's are the expat heart: English, offices, restaurants — and the highest rents, construction noise and traffic. The south and the interior are Maltese, cheaper and quieter, but ask more of your adaptability. And Gozo is the small sister island: green, slow and quiet, with a ferry between you and everything the main island has. Know too what you're getting into in terms of density: Malta is the most densely populated country in the EU, and you feel that in the traffic and in summer. Make this choice before the house hunt — it decides your rent, your noise and your daily life.

Seen

Step 1.3

Get a picture of what it's going to cost

Lead time:: 1-2 hours with the calculator
Costs:: none

The paperwork is free here — the e-Residence registration costs nothing. The money is in the home (Sliema now asks Dutch rents), in the crossing if the car or the household contents come along (driving to Sicily or Salerno, then the boat), and in the energy bill of a house without insulation. Work it out with your own choices.

Your budget, worked out

Seen

Step 1.4

Take the decision together

Lead time:: no fixed time; take your time for it
Costs:: none

Malta feels like the easiest emigration in the Mediterranean — English, EU, three hours' flight — and precisely for that reason four things deserve an honest conversation. The winter indoors: Maltese houses have no heating and no insulation; January is clammy there, and a dehumidifier is standard equipment. The wage level: outside iGaming, financial services and tech it lies far below the Dutch one. The scale: 316 square kilometres means every outing is the same island — some find that peace, others after a year claustrophobia. And the bustle: traffic and building sites are part of present-day Malta. Also discuss who carries the income in the first months.

Seen

Step 1.6

Choose your target date

Lead time:: five minutes, below
Costs:: none

Choose below the date on which you want to be standing on Malta. The step-by-step plan works out whether that's feasible with what still has to happen, and from that moment guards the clocks that exist: three months for the registration, ten days for the rental registration, and the thirty days and twelve months around the car.

When do you want to leave for Malta?

Phase 1 read

You know what you're getting into. Now the arranging begins.

You've read phase 1 of the step-by-step plan for Malta. The full plan has another 30 steps ready for you: Closing the Netherlands, Move, Registration on Malta and Arrival.

The plan counts everything back from your departure date, watches your deadlines and documents, and shows only the steps that apply to you.

The step-by-step plan for Malta

€ 199

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Continue with the full plan · € 199

Also included: deadlines watched · documents with expiry dates · only your steps · your partner ticks along · all cancellation letters · questions to Auke.

✎ Auke reads along

Stuck somewhere? Ask your question at the step. Auke reads it himself and answers within two working days.

Not ready yet? Send yourself your date and phase 1 →

Phase 2 · Closing the Netherlands0 of 14 steps open

The familiar list, with the tax lesson that carries this corridor. Malta only taxes foreign income to the extent you transfer it to Malta — but the 1977 treaty also ties the Dutch exemption to that same transfer. "Zero per cent by not remitting" therefore doesn't exist: then the Netherlands simply keeps taxing. And the AOW and the ABP pension stay Dutch anyway.

2.1Arrange your healthcare: the basic insurance stops on moving daystart 2-3 months before departure; the CAK application takes ± 4 weeks
2.2Pension and the remittance rule: the sum the brochures skipthe sum is an evening; the exemption statement takes weeks
2.3The tax wrap-up: M return and the protective assessmentthe M return follows in the year after departure
2.4Stop allowances and child benefitan hour
2.5Deregister with the municipalityfive working days before departure, not earlier
2.6DigiD, bank and your vote — plus one letter you arrange right nowan afternoon
2.7Documents: multilingual extractsextracts within a week
2.8Partner comes along without a job of their ownonly if this applies to you
2.9Living partly in the Netherlands: the eight-month ruleonly if this applies to you
2.10The house in the Netherlands: sell, rent out or keeponly if this applies to you
2.11Children staying in the Netherlands: DUO, healthcare and the houseonly if this applies to you
2.12Cancel what stops: job, rent, energy, subscriptions and schoolstart three months before departure; most notice periods are one month
2.13Stay reachable: DigiD, your phone number, your bank and your postarrange it before you leave; afterwards it takes weeks
2.14Student debt, remote work or your own business: what moves with youreport it before you leave; the consequences run for years

Open all steps · € 199

Phase 3 · Move0 of 3 steps open

You reach Malta in three hours' flight — but the household contents, the car and the pet go over land and sea, via Sicily or Salerno. The car has a sum of its own: the relocation exemption asks twice twenty-four months, and Malta drives on the left. And the dog has the tightest clock of the whole move: a tapeworm treatment in a window of 24 to 120 hours before arrival.

3.1Plan the journey: flying for you, sailing for the restquotes 4-6 weeks ahead
3.2The car: the ToR sum, and the honest conversation about driving on the leftonly if this applies to you
3.3The pet: the tapeworm clock and the notification dutyonly if this applies to you

Phase 4 · Registration on Malta0 of 6 steps open

The chain, in the only order in which it works: a home with a registered contract, then the complete file to Identità, then the biometrics and the card, and only then the eID, the bank and healthcare. The rule that speeds everything up is the same one that slows everything down: Identità only processes complete files.

4.1Find your home — and check the registration, because otherwise the contract is voidsearching 2-6 weeks; the registration is the landlord's duty
4.2The file to Identità: complete or notresponse within 48 working hours with a complete file
4.3The biometrics and the cardthe appointment follows the file; the card comes after that
4.4The eID and the tax numberan hour, as soon as you have the card
4.5The bank account: count on weeks, not days2 weeks to 2 months at the big banks
4.6Healthcare: the S1 to the Entitlement Unitsubmitting is an email; the certificate follows by post

Phase 5 · Arrival0 of 7 steps open

The papers are in; now it becomes a life. The car still has its thirty days, the tax return gets its remittance records, and daily life its Maltese peculiarities: free public transport on a personal card, a school you choose deliberately, and a winter you win with a dehumidifier.

5.1The car: the ToR file and the registrationonly if this applies to you
5.2Work: Jobsplus, the wage level and the sectors that do payongoing
5.3Tax in practice: the return and the remittance recordsthe return follows annually; the records are ongoing
5.4Family: choose the school deliberatelyonly if this applies to you
5.5The house through the winter: damp, electricity and the ARMS tariffarrange it in your first month
5.6Transport: free buses, driving on the leftthe Tallinja card is an application
5.7The small print: the rhythm of the islandspread over the first year

8 of these 30 steps only appear when your answers call for them: a pet, a car, a partner without a job, children staying in the Netherlands. That is the difference between a step-by-step plan and a checklist.

Three questions

Can't I find all this for free?

Yes. Everything in the plan comes from official sources, and they're listed at every step. Phase 1 above is the proof. What you buy is the work around it: which of the 30 following steps apply to you, in which order, with which deadline, and a nudge when something needs doing.

Does this apply to my situation too?

The plan first asks who is coming along, what is coming along and how you're leaving the Netherlands. Steps that don't apply to you don't appear; steps that only apply to you do. Is your situation slightly different from what's written? Ask your question at the step; you'll get an answer within two working days.

What if the rules change after I buy?

Then your plan changes with them. Twice a month we check every source; whatever changes is in your plan the same week, with the date. Your access lasts for your whole departure.

Ready to begin?

The step-by-step plan for Malta: 35 steps, your documents and your costs in one place, with the timing watched. Pay once, and it's yours.

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