*UPDATE- 4 days on and no response to my email requesting an appointment. If you turn up there, they just make an appointment for another day, they wont see you there and then. I’m not taking a day off to go to Valletta for 5 minutes to make the appointment. Shambles. *
I’m just posting as much as I know, which is VERY little. If you have any questions about this please direct them to;
eresidence.mfa@gov.mt
as I simply will not know the answers.
All I know is, all foreign ID cards are set to expire in March 2013. We have to sort out a new ID card which is an ID card and residency permit all in one. All the information available can be found via this link;
http://www.foreign.gov.mt/default.aspx?MDIS=552
it also links to the specific form you’ll need to fill in. I am British (EU National) and I work here so I will need to fill in Form A found here;
http://www.foreign.gov.mt/Library/PDF/form%20a_A4.pdf
but make sure you find the right form for you. There will be a list of other documents you need so make sure you take the originals plus TWO copies (at least).
Meetings are by APPOINTMENT ONLY. Email here for an appointment;
eresidence.mfa@gov.mt
but be aware that many emails are bouncing. The email is correct though so just keep trying. Once you have an appointment it will be at;
3, Castille Place, Second Floor, Valletta
while cards can be collected from 172, Melita Street, Valletta.
Apparently if you already have the proper documentation (ID card, work permit etc) then they cannot actually make this update compulsory but in the future it may be, and you may need to provide it for future jobs etc so it may be best to just get it over and done with. There is also a lot of speculation about whether this is legal, and knowing Malta, it’s probably not. They have a habit of just doing what they want, regardless of EU legislation.
There are a lot of questions I don’t like such as ‘permanent address abroad’. I live in Malta so I don’t have an address abroad. And ‘intended duration of stay’ / ‘next intended country of settlement’- I’m an EU national who lives and works here so I don’t know why they want to put a limit on my stay, so I’m not sure how to answer these questions.
As you may or may not know, we don’t even have a proper government in Malta right now as it collapsed recently, so if a new government comes into power in March then it may be ALL CHANGE once again. So whether you go ahead with this is personal choice, but I’ve emailed to make an appointment and will update once I know more!
Thanks, Harri. Your advice/comments on this latest post are useful and insightful. I’ll second the observation that reaching the relevant office is tricky at present. And you’re right, it’ll be interesting to see how the I.D. card issue might be affected by the outcome of the elections. Fun blog, great photos – looking forward to more.
I have emailed twice now… no response. This has not come as a huge surprise.
Same! I’m not surprised but seriously pissed off. I want to get put on the utility bills so they’re reduced by 30% but we can’t get put on it until our address is updated, and we can’t update our address until they give us a fecking appointment. Even then, I think the earliest ones right now are June. So ridiculous!
Hi Harri
We’ve talked before – you may recall I’m in Cyprus.
We’ve been here just over 9 years now and still enjoy our life here although we have toyed with the idea of Malta over the last year or so.
Like you, I work in online gaming so Malta or Gib are the most natural progressions I guess…
I’m laughing at this post. We may as well be talking about the same place, although we’re about 1700km away from each other the bureaucracy is on a par.
You may get a phone call answered or you can go and fill in a form to get an appointment but there’s a good chance the procedure will have changed again by the time you get your appointment which may lead to being given yet another appointment.
Emails? Well, they’re rarely answered – but a fax does generally produce a response! Weird eh?
Glad to hear you’re still enjoying the life Malta offers.
My parents generally go on holiday for a month each February but this year they came to us in Cyprus as they had to put their planned month here in November on hold due to my Dad not being well enough to travel. So we didn’t get over to your little island for our annual visit.
We really must try and pop over in the summer months one year instead of hoping for good weather in February each time…