Malta citizenship by investment

Malta citizenship by investment is closed If you searched for a way to buy a Maltese passport, the honest answer is that the route no longer exists. Malta's citizenship-by-investment programme has been closed. On 29 April 2025 the EU Court of Justice ruled it unlawful (Case C-181/23), and Malta repealed it on 24 July 2025 through Act XXI of 2025. You can no longer obtain Maltese — and therefore EU — citizenship through a defined investment. We correct the query rather than keep the illusion alive.

Why it closed The Court held that a Member State cannot make its nationality — and with it EU citizenship and free movement — available in exchange for predetermined payments; citizenship rests on a genuine bond, not a commercial transaction. Malta's programme was structured exactly as a purchase, and that is what the Court found incompatible with EU law. We explain the ruling and its consequences in full in Malta after the CJEU ruling.

What is not affected The ruling did not unwind the past. Citizenships already granted before the repeal remain valid; the people who obtained them keep their status and their passports. The judgment governs what Malta may offer going forward, not a retroactive revocation. If you already hold Maltese citizenship, your position is unchanged.

What remains: residence, not a purchasable passport Two lawful paths survive, and neither is a passport for a set price. Malta still runs the Malta Permanent Residence Programme (MPRP), which grants permanent residence — the right to live in Malta and travel in Schengen — but not citizenship. Separately, Malta retains a discretionary, merit-based naturalisation with no fixed amount; it is not a purchasable route and should not be marketed as one.

Honest alternatives if you wanted an EU passport If a path to an EU passport was the real goal, it now runs through residence-first programmes in other member states, not a Maltese shortcut. A Portuguese golden visa or a Greek golden visa can, over years of genuine residence, lead to naturalisation — on their timelines and conditions. Weigh them side by side on our golden visa comparison, and remember that citizenship, wherever you pursue it, does not by itself change where you are taxed (second citizenship and taxes).

Before you act Be especially wary here: because the programme is closed, anyone still offering a Maltese passport for a set investment is describing something that no longer exists — treat it as a warning sign and read our guide to risks, scams and vetting an agent. Confirm the current status of the MPRP and any naturalisation route with the Maltese authorities directly, and see how we verify every figure and status on our methodology page.