Malta’s legal position needs to be understood carefully. The Court of Justice of the European Union’s judgment concerned Malta’s former Exceptional Services by Investment framework, not Malta’s wider visa or residence routes. Malta’s residence and immigration programs continue to operate, while the former investment-based citizenship rules have since been replaced by a citizenship-by-merit framework assessed on a case-by-case basis and no longer follows a transactional model. So, if the question is whether a Maltese visa or residence application can still proceed now, the answer is generally yes – those routes remain available and were not struck down by the ECJ judgment. If the question is about citizenship, applicants should not rely on the old “citizenship by investment” narrative. Today, any citizenship route must be considered under Malta’s revised merit-based rules, with legal residence, contribution, due diligence, and individual assessment all remaining central.
