Coming to Malta from Albania: visa-free entry, the D visa, construction and hospitality

Albanian workers are a fixture on Maltese building sites, in restaurants and in delivery, and Albanian is one of the languages you hear on the Marsa bus. Visa-free travel makes the route look easy. It is not shorter: the permit is the same, the employer applies and pays, and arriving first as a tourist is the one mistake Identità does not forgive.

Visa-free is not work-free

Your passport lets you enter the Schengen area as a visitor for up to 90 days in any 180 without a visa. It does not let you work, and Identità refuses permit applications made from inside Malta on a tourist entry. The order is: contract, employer applies, approval in principle, then a long-stay (D) visa from home, then travel. The whole journey on one page walks that order from job offer to residence card. Identità’s own policy: anyone staying longer than 90 days needs a long-stay visa before arrival, whatever the passport.

Where the visa comes from

Malta has no embassy in Albania. Identità’s premium process for countries without a mission applies: email to the Central Visa Unit with your approval in principle, token, upload, €300 for all fees, passport by courier, six to eight weeks. Check VFS Global’s Malta pages in case a centre is listed for Albania. The Serbia page covers the same courier process for Serbian passports.

The jobs Albanians take here

Construction and finishing trades, plastering, tiling, welding; restaurant and hotel staff; delivery riders and drivers; warehouse and logistics. Italian speakers find bar and restaurant work faster. Hospitality jobs need the Tourism and Hospitality Skills Pass (€230) on top of the pre-departure course. Construction workers are included in the health screening since May 2026.

Life here

Albanian communities are strongest in Marsa, Ħamrun, Qormi and the central towns. Italian is widely understood in Malta, which helps. English is the language of contracts and offices.

The scam, Albanian version

Fees charged in Albania for a “Malta contract”, then deducted again in Malta as “recruitment costs”, passports held “for the permit”, and eight men in a two-bedroom flat at €300 each. Every item is illegal here: the deduction, the passport, the overcrowding. The never-pay-an-agent guide covers the fee at the start. The Colombia page covers the same fee scam for Colombian workers. Read the contract-traps guide, then the housing-rights guide. If you are already in it, DIER on 1575 and the 30-day grace period are your way out.

The money

The minimum wage is €229.44 a week in 2026, about €994 a month. A room costs €450 to €700 a month. Run your own numbers in the salaries guide before you accept. A salary far above the ranges there is a red flag, not a prize.

What never happens

Nobody in Malta charges you for a job. Agencies here are licensed by DIER and commit an offence if they take money from an applicant. Employers may not take money from workers for recruitment. The permit fee is the employer’s. You pay the two official courses, your visa, your health tests and your flight, and nothing else.

Check this at the source

• Identità, long-stay visa policy: who needs a D visa, where to apply, premium process €300, 6 to 8 weeks. https://identita.gov.mt/central-visa-unit-national-visa-long-stay-visa/
• Missions of Malta: embassies and high commissions. https://missions.foreign.gov.mt/embassies/ and https://missions.foreign.gov.mt/high-commissions/
• Identità, working and residing in Malta. https://identita.gov.mt/working-residing-in-malta/
• DIER: agencies may not charge applicants. https://dier.gov.mt/en/faqs/employment-agencies-regulations-and-the-temporary-working-regulations/2/