🇲🇹Malta — Citizenship by merit

Principal, spouse and two children aged under 12. Eligibility, age definitions and dependency rules apply.

Separate legal criteria, not a family bundle price

Agency notice 5 February 2026 expressly says merit is not a continuation or alternative to former citizenship by investment.

Presence

Case-by-case statutory assessment

Holding / ongoing duties

No transactional investment schedule

This route does not establish ordinary national-passport privileges. Short visits; personal circumstances and entry conditions apply. Each rule retains its own check date.

UK visits

ETA / visit-visa exempt

Current ordinary Malta national passport, after citizenship and passport issuance. UK short visits require an ETA unless an individual exemption applies; visitor conditions remain applicable.

Checked 2026-10-24.

• Current visitor visa nationality and ETA eligibility lists ↗UK Home Office / UKVI · Government guidance · Checked 2026-10-24
  What this source supports

  Visitor-visa list includes Botswana, Jordan, North Macedonia, Georgia, Serbia and Pakistan; Austria, Malta and St Vincent have ordinary-passport ETA access under the separately cited eligibility guidance.

• Current ETA eligibility including Austria, Malta and St Vincent ↗UK Visas and Immigration · Government guidance · Checked 2026-10-24
  What this source supports

  Current ETA list includes Austria, Malta and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Update history records Botswana’s removal on 14 October 2025.

Schengen visits

EU free movement

Current ordinary Malta national passport, after citizenship and passport issuance. EU citizenship gives travel-document rights using a valid national ID card or passport. These rights follow a legal nationality grant, not an investment payment.

Checked 2026-10-24.

• EU citizen travel-document rights and exceptions ↗European Union / Your Europe · Government guidance · Checked 2026-10-24
  What this source supports

  EU citizens enter other EU countries using a valid national identity card or passport; public-policy/security/health refusal has a separate legal test.

USA visits

Visa Waiver Program / ESTA

Current ordinary Malta national passport, after citizenship and passport issuance. Eligible tourism/business visits may use the Visa Waiver Program for up to 90 days, with ESTA, an eligible electronic passport and all personal eligibility conditions.

Checked 2026-10-24.

• Visa Waiver Program nationality and passport requirements ↗US Department of State · Government guidance · Checked 2026-10-24
  What this source supports

  VWP requires participating citizenship/nationality, a qualifying passport and ESTA. A noncitizen investment document does not itself establish those requirements.

Canada visits

Visa-exempt · air eTA

Current ordinary Malta national passport, after citizenship and passport issuance. Air travellers need an eTA and valid passport unless exempt. Arrival by land/sea generally requires a valid passport without an eTA.

Checked 2026-10-24.

• Entry requirements by nationality, status and travel document ↗Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada · Government guidance · Checked 2026-10-24
  What this source supports

  Entry conditions depend on citizenship, travel document, status and transport. Foreign residence does not itself create a new nationality. Canadian and US permanent residents have separately described document rules.

Global category counts, where shown above, are attributed publisher snapshots. The selected destination rules here use government evidence. Recognition of a document is separate from visa exemption.

Checked means the cited material was reviewed, not that the authority published a new rule that day. Source authority and retrieval limitations are recorded below.