The Single Permit checklist: what to send, in what order, with no surprises

Most permit delays are a missing document, not a refused one. This is the list, taken from Identità’s own checklists, so you can prepare everything before your employer presses submit. Tick as you go. Anything marked “never” is a sign you are dealing with the wrong people.

Before the application: what you prepare

• Passport, full copy including blank pages, valid for more than eight months.
• CV on the Europass template, signed by you. Identità asks for this format.
• Qualification certificates, with recognition from the Malta Qualifications Recognition and Information Centre where the job needs it. Originals ready.
• Reference letters if you are not formally qualified for the post: at least three years’ related experience, each letter with start and end dates, what you did, and the referee’s email, postal address and phone.
• Pre-departure course certificate from the official Skills Pass portal.
• Skills Pass certificate, hospitality only.
• Driving licence if you will drive for work. Light passenger vehicles need a Maltese or EU licence; other vehicles your home licence.
• Sector extras: food handlers certificate for catering, Council for Nurses and Midwives registration for nursing, Maltese electrician licence, police licence and security tag for security work.

What the employer prepares

• Application form (CEA Form C2 for new applications), completed and signed. The Single Permit, step by step explains the process around this list.
• Covering letter explaining why the position is necessary.
• Signed work contract showing duration and basic gross salary. How to verify the employer before you sign is on its own page.
• Proof of the advertisement: three weeks within the two months before submission, two weeks for fast tracks, with the publication date visible.
• Jobsplus Declaration of Suitability, filled and signed by the employer.
• Health insurance for you: minimum cover €100,000, outpatient and hospital treatment in Malta, valid for the whole first year of the permit. Many employers arrange it; check whose name is on the policy and who pays.
• The fee: €600 for a first permit, €150 in health and care roles. The employer pays Identità directly.

Accommodation papers

• Lease or purchase agreement in your name with start and end dates. If the employer houses you free, a Declaration of Accommodation. If you live in a hotel or guesthouse, the Keeper’s Declaration Form.
• Housing Authority approval confirming the lease is registered. Required under the Private Residential Leases Act.
• Lease Agreement Professional Attestation Form, signed by the landlord and stamped by a lawyer, notary or legal procurator.

Employers who provide accommodation usually handle all three. If you rent yourself, ask the landlord for the registration confirmation; the housing-rights guide explains what registration is. Finding a flat or a room covers where to look and what to sign.

Health screening

• Clearance email from the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Unit. Applied for online by the employer since 4 May 2026. Tests are done in Malta at private clinics: vaccination checks, blood tests where your job requires, a chest X-ray within six weeks of application if you were born in or lived six months in a country on the health authority’s high-risk tuberculosis list. Up to 15 working days. What is tested and what fails you is on its own page.

For the visa, after approval in principle

• Long-stay visa application form, signed.
• Passport as above.
• One passport photo to ICAO standard.
• Travel medical insurance valid in Malta for the whole visa.
• Proof of accommodation for the first month.
• Proof of money for the stay.
• Provisional flight booking.
• The approval in principle letter, still valid.
• Letter from the employer: name, address, phone, your position, duration, salary.

At biometrics in Malta

• Every original of every document you uploaded.
• Your passport and the interim receipt once issued.

Never on the list

• A fee to anyone but Identità, the visa centre, the two official course portals, a clinic, an airline or the qualifications centre.
• A “deposit” for the job, the flat or the flight.
• Your original passport handed to an agent “for safekeeping”.
• A signed blank contract.
• A “training bond” or “recruitment cost” you must repay from your wages.

If one appears, read the never-pay-an-agent guide and the contract-traps guide before you do anything else.

Check this at the source

• Identità, checklist for a new Single Permit application (KEI version, March 2026). https://identita.gov.mt/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Checklist-New-Application-for-Single-Permit-KEI.pdf
• Identità, long-stay visa documents. https://identita.gov.mt/central-visa-unit-national-visa-long-stay-visa/
• Health screening for first-time applicants. https://hpdp.gov.mt/idcu/work_permits_for_first_time_applicants
• Identità, working and residing in Malta. https://identita.gov.mt/working-residing-in-malta/