FindWorkMalta
English

Guides · Agents and scams · For everyone

Never pay an agent for a job in Malta

In Malta a licensed employment agency may not charge you a cent. Anyone asking for a fee, a deposit or 'visa processing' is a scam. Red flags and where to report.

Updated 5 November 2026 · 5 min read

If someone wants money from you for a job in Malta, you are not being recruited. You are being robbed. A licensed employment agency in Malta commits an offence if it charges a jobseeker anything, and an employer may not take money from a worker for recruitment or termination. The job is free. The permit is paid by the employer. Keep your money, keep your passport, and read on.

The law in one line

The Department for Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) licenses every employment agency in Malta. Its own guidance says it plainly: an agency that charges any fee or demands any payment from an applicant for employment is guilty of an offence, and can lose its licence.

The government went further in November 2025. Employers may not receive any financial compensation from workers in relation to recruitment or termination. An employer caught doing it can be barred from hiring non-EU workers at all.

So there is no legal “placement fee”, no legal “processing fee”, no legal “deposit”. Not in Malta.

How the scam works

The pattern is the same from Bogotá to Manila to Kathmandu to Kochi. Only the names change.

  1. A job that finds you. A WhatsApp message, a Facebook group post, a TikTok video. “Urgent hiring for Malta. No experience. Salary €1,800. Accommodation provided.”
  2. A friendly “HR manager”. Often with a Maltese company name copied from a real website, a logo, even a real registration number. They answer fast and warmly.
  3. An offer letter within days. No interview, or a five-minute video call where nobody asks you anything hard.
  4. Then the money. It arrives in stages so each step feels small. A “visa processing fee”. A “Jobsplus registration fee”. A “deposit for accommodation”. An “air ticket we will refund on arrival”. A “medical”. A “pre-departure course” paid to them, not to the official portal.
  5. The total lands between €2,000 and €10,000 in the cases that reach the Maltese press. Families sell land for it.
  6. The ending. Either nothing arrives, or a visa arrives for a job that does not exist, or you land in Malta and the “employer” sacks you after a month and recruits the next person.

A variant: a real licensed agency in your home country charges you to be “placed” with a Maltese employer. Legal at home, perhaps. Still a sign that the Maltese end is rotten.

Red flags

Stop at the first one you see.

  • Any request for money, in any name, at any stage.
  • “HR” contacts you on WhatsApp or Telegram from a personal number.
  • The job offer arrives before anyone has seen your CV or spoken to you properly.
  • A “guaranteed visa” or “visa in 20 days”. Identità says a Single Permit decision can take up to four months.
  • They ask you to send your passport scan before an interview.
  • They say you can come on a tourist visa and “sort the permit later”. You cannot. Applicants already in Malta on a tourist visa are refused.
  • The company’s email is Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook, not the company’s own domain.
  • The salary is far above the Maltese market for that job. A cleaner is not paid €2,500.
  • They push you to decide today.
  • They tell you to keep the arrangement secret from the Maltese authorities.

What legitimate recruitment looks like

  • The employer applies for your Single Permit through Identità. You endorse it online. You never fill in a permit application yourself.
  • The employer pays the application fee. In 2025 it was raised to €600 for a first permit. That is their cost, not yours.
  • Before the application, the employer must advertise the job in Malta for three weeks within the two months before applying. A real employer can show you that advert.
  • A real interview happens. Someone asks about your experience and tells you the hours, the salary and where you will live.
  • Your contract shows the gross salary, the hours, the probation period and the notice period in writing.
  • You pay only two things directly, both to official portals: the pre-departure course and, for hospitality, the Skills Pass. Both are paid on the official Skills Pass portal, never to a person.
  • Your salary is paid by bank transfer into an account in your name. Cash wages to non-EU workers have been illegal since 1 October 2025.

For Filipinos

The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) keeps a public list of licensed recruitment agencies and approved job orders on its website. If the agency or the job order is not there, walk away. Whether a placement fee may be charged at all depends on the job category and the destination country, and the rules change. Check the current rule on the DMW site or call its hotline, 1348, before you pay anything to anyone.

If you already paid

  • Stop paying. The next payment is always “the last one”.
  • Keep everything: chats, receipts, bank transfers, the offer letter, the names and numbers.
  • If the money went to someone in Malta, file a report with the Malta Police. There is an online form for people outside Malta, and the emergency number in Malta is 112.
  • If an employer or agency in Malta took the money, tell DIER as well. Employees call 1575 or write to info.dier@gov.mt. DIER can act against an agency’s licence.
  • Report at home too. In the Philippines, the DMW hotline is 1348. Elsewhere, your labour ministry or embassy.
  • Do not travel on a visa you suspect is false. Being caught at the border costs more than the money you lost.

Check this at the source

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Rules change. The official sources linked at the end are the final word.

Never pay anyone for a job in Malta. If someone asks for money, it is a scam. No agents →

Read next