Renewing your Single Permit: one year or two, and the new training rule

Start the renewal three months before the card expires, not three weeks. The application is the employer’s again, the fee is theirs again, and the rules on how long the new permit lasts changed in 2026. Here is what to expect.

When and who

Identità accepts renewal applications up to 90 days before expiry. Your employer submits online, you endorse. The renewal fee has been €150 per year since August 2025. The 2027 Budget announced a yearly €400 infrastructure contribution on renewals as well; check the current figure on Identità’s site when you apply. What the 2027 Budget changes is on its own page.

File early. A permit that expires with the renewal still pending leaves you in a grey zone. The interim receipt protects you only when it has been issued.

One year or two

Most first permits are for one year. The government’s November 2025 announcement set the direction for renewals:

• Workers who have been in Malta at least a year may be renewed for more than one year, subject to conditions.
• Higher-skilled roles get a two-year extension when there is a valid employment contract to match.
• Lower-skilled roles must complete a training programme delivered by licensed Maltese institutions, covering Maltese culture and traditions, civic participation, legal and safety awareness, personal and professional development, and English and Maltese, before a longer permit is considered.

Identità publishes the current conditions and which job groups fall where. Ask your employer which group your job is in before you plan on two years.

What the employer must show

The same things as the first time, updated: a current contract, the Jobsplus engagement still active, your salary paid by bank transfer, and that the company is not blocked from hiring non-EU workers because of its termination rate or an unjustified dismissal in the previous year. A company that cannot renew you because it is blocked is a company to leave.

Health screening again

One repeat screening a year after the first, if you come from a very high-risk tuberculosis country or work in health, care, food handling, beauty or tattooing. Others in administrative, construction, transport, cleaning, security or delivery jobs skip it. Done in Malta, online application by the employer, up to 15 working days. What the screening tests is on its own page.

While you wait

• Keep working. Your current permit is valid until its date.
• Keep every payslip and your bank statements. They prove continuous legal employment, which you will need for long-term residence after five years.
• If the employer stalls, ask in writing for the submission date. If the answer is silence, the changing-jobs guide tells you how to move employer without losing status.

Do not

• Let the card expire while you “wait for HR”.
• Pay the fee yourself because the employer asked you to. The employer pays Identità.
• Travel outside Schengen with an expired card and only a receipt. Ask Identità first.

Check this at the source

• Identità, working and residing in Malta: renewal up to 90 days before expiry, fees. https://identita.gov.mt/working-residing-in-malta/
• Government press release, 27 November 2025: longer permits, the training programme. https://www.gov.mt/en/Government/DOI/Press%20Releases/Pages/2025/11/27/pr252122en.aspx
• Identità fact sheet: €150 renewal. https://identita.gov.mt/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Fact-Sheet.pdf
• Health screening for renewals. https://hpdp.gov.mt/idcu/health_screening_for_renewal_of_work_permit
• KPMG on Budget 2027: the €400 contribution on renewals. https://kpmg.com/mt/en/insights/2026/10/malta-budget-2027.html