Discover the Passport Papers

Discover where around the world individuals are from who are purchasing passports and how much they are paying when they arrive in Malta.

Days spent in Malta

Once researchers at the Foundation noticed a trend that applicants were spending very little time in Malta for the 12-month period prior to submitting their application for Maltese citizenship, we began to research how many days applicants were really spending in the country.

Findings from our data have shown that the average number of days an applicant spent in Malta while applying for a passport was 16 days, and the median was 14 days.

Nationality findings

Our data has shown that an overwhelming majority of applicants, both those applying and specifically approved applicants, are Russian nationals. Applicants from Saudi Arabia and China make up the second and third largest nationalities within our data.

Visit our profiles pages to read about high-profile applicants who attempted to purchase a Maltese passport — successfully, in many cases.

Rental findings

Our data also explores the rental agreements applicants entered into as part of their 12-month residency requirement in Malta. The data has shown that a clear majority of applicants within our data chose to lease a property that was on, or just above, the legally required amount to qualify for citizenship.

Another notable rental finding was a rental agreement for just 89 euros per month, used as part of an application package. The figure reflects a rental agreement where an applicant rented a holiday apartment in a hotel, where the lease agreement is signed by the general manager of the hotel. On the other end of the spectrum, one applicant rented a property for 7,500 euros per month. Overall, we found that within our data the median average monthly rental price was 1,400 euros per month.