Three questions get asked as though they were one. Can I own a Maltese company. Can I run it from abroad. Can I move to Malta and work there. They sound related, and they are answered by entirely different bodies of law.
The confusion has a cost. Founders assume that setting up a company in Malta comes with the right to live there, discover months later that it does not, and find they have sequenced the whole project backwards. This article separates the three questions and answers each one properly.
Key Takeaways
- Nationality is irrelevant to ownership. Anyone can own 100% of a Maltese company, with no local partner and no residency requirement for shareholders or directors. On this question, your passport changes nothing.
- Owning a Maltese company gives you no right to live or work in Malta. Residence is governed by immigration law, not company law, and for non-EU nationals it normally requires an employer, a job offer and a Single Permit.
- The Nomad Residence Permit will not solve it. Its eligibility rules require income from a foreign-registered business, so paying yourself from your new Maltese company takes you outside the scheme.
Owning a Maltese Company, Where Nationality Is Irrelevant
Start with the good news, because this part is genuinely open.
Foreign nationals can own 100% of a Maltese company. There is no requirement for a local partner, no minimum local shareholding, and no nationality or residency condition attached to being a shareholder. The same applies to directors. A private limited company needs a minimum of one shareholder and one director, and both roles can be filled by the same person, of any nationality, resident anywhere.
Shareholders and directors can be individuals or corporate bodies, which means a foreign company can hold a Maltese subsidiary directly.
The documentation is the same for everyone. Certified identification for every director, shareholder and beneficial owner, proof of residential address, a bank or professional reference, the beneficial ownership disclosure and the director’s consent form. Non-EU applicants are more likely to be asked for apostilled documents, which is a logistics question rather than a legal barrier.
The company itself needs a registered office in Malta, a company secretary who must be an individual, and minimum authorised share capital of €1,164.69 with at least 20% paid up. None of that changes with your passport.
Running It From Abroad, Where the Real Question Starts
Incorporation is handled remotely. You do not need to travel to Malta to sign, file or open the company.
Managing it from abroad indefinitely is a different matter, and this is where the analysis actually belongs. A Maltese company is taxed as Maltese because it is incorporated here, but where its management and control genuinely sit affects how your own country of residence views it. Malta’s tax authorities apply real scrutiny to economic substance, and other jurisdictions apply their own anti-avoidance rules to structures they consider to be managed from home.
The practical answer is proportion. A company with genuine activity, real decision-making and a proportionate local footprint holds up. A registered address and nothing else does not, and increasingly does not open a bank account either.
Living in Malta, A Separate Question Entirely
Here is the part that catches people out. Company ownership and residence rights are governed by different rules and different authorities. Registering a company at the Malta Business Registry tells the immigration authorities nothing and grants you nothing.
What you can do depends entirely on your passport.
If You Hold an EU, EEA or Swiss Passport
Freedom of movement applies, and the position is straightforward. EU, EEA and Swiss nationals do not need a work permit to work in Malta. There is no employment licence to obtain and no employer sponsorship to arrange.
You may reside in Malta for up to three months without formality. Beyond three months, you must apply for an eResidence Document and show that you are exercising Treaty Rights, meaning employment, self-employment, study, family reunification or being economically self-sufficient. British and EEA nationals benefit from broadly similar conditions.
For an EU founder, the sequence is simple. Form the company, move if you want to, register your residence.
If You Are a Third Country National
For everyone else, the position is materially different, and it is the reason this article exists.
Since 2014, all third country nationals must go through the Single Permit procedure to work and reside in Malta. Issued by Identità, the Single Permit is a combined work and residence permit, and the critical feature is what has to come first. You need an employment offer from an employer in Malta before the application can begin.
The permit is tied to specifics. It names an employer, a designation and a duration, and it is printed on the residence card itself. The holder cannot use it to take a different job or work for another employer, even part time, and if any of those criteria change the holder must notify the Expatriates Unit and return the card. Permits are generally issued for a maximum of one year and must be renewed, typically 30 to 90 days before expiry. The card arrives roughly six to eight weeks after biometrics are taken.
Founders sometimes plan to have their own Maltese company employ them. That route exists, but it runs through the same Single Permit process with the company acting as employer, subject to every requirement below.
What Changed in 2025 and 2026
The Single Permit framework tightened recently, and these changes affect any company planning to employ non-EU staff, including its own founders.
- Third country national quotas. Since 2025, Maltese companies face a cap on the proportion of third country nationals they may employ, tracked through the Jobsplus portal. An employer that has reached its limit cannot process new applications until it hires EU workers or reduces its non-EU headcount. The quota must be checked before submitting, not after.
- Skills Pass. A Skills Pass certificate became mandatory in January 2026, and a missing or expired certificate is now a common cause of rejection.
- Jobsplus vacancy advertisement. The vacancy must be advertised through Jobsplus before the hiring decision is made, not afterwards to paper the file.
- Passport validity. Applications are refused where the passport has less than eight months of remaining validity.
- Application from the right place. Applying while in Malta on a tourist stay, rather than from abroad or from a legal status, is treated as a defect.
Certified English translations are required for any document in another language, and the employer must have an Identità portal account set up before submission.
The Nomad Residence Permit and Why It May Not Fit
The Nomad Residence Permit is often suggested as the workaround for non-EU founders. Read its conditions carefully, because for most people setting up in Malta it does the opposite of what they need.
The permit is open to non-EU nationals who work remotely and independently of location. It is issued for one year, renewable up to four, and requires a minimum gross annual income of €42,000. Applicants must fall into one of three categories: employed by an employer registered in a foreign country under a contract of work, conducting business activities for a company registered in a foreign country in which they are a partner or shareholder, or providing freelance or consulting services to clients whose permanent establishment is in a foreign country.
Every one of those three routes requires the income to come from outside Malta. Form a Maltese company, pay yourself from it, and you no longer meet any of them.
That does not make the permit useless. It fits a founder who keeps an existing foreign company and wants to live in Malta. It does not fit a founder whose plan is to move the business here and draw income from it, and reading the eligibility rules after incorporating is an expensive way to find that out.
Getting the Sequence Right
Most of the difficulty in this area comes from doing the right things in the wrong order.
If you hold an EU passport, the sequence barely matters. Incorporate, then register your residence if and when you move.
If you are a third country national and intend to stay abroad, incorporate and manage the company from where you are, with attention to substance. No permit is needed, because you are not living or working in Malta.
If you are a third country national and intend to relocate, decide the immigration route before you incorporate, not after. The Single Permit requires an employer, quotas apply at company level, and the Nomad Residence Permit closes once your income comes from a Maltese entity. Which route you take shapes how the company should be structured and how you should be paid from it.
If you already have a company elsewhere, there is a further option worth knowing. Under Malta’s continuation regime, an existing foreign company can be redomiciled to Malta without being wound up, keeping its legal identity, contracts and trading history intact.
Tell us your nationality, where you live now, and whether you plan to relocate. Those three facts determine almost everything else, and we would rather establish them before anything is filed than after.