Registering a Baby as Maltese, and the First Passport

Is my child Maltese?

For most families the answer is yes, automatically. Under article 5 of the Maltese Citizenship Act, a child born on or after 1 August 1989 is a citizen of Malta if either parent was a Maltese citizen at the time of the birth. This applies equally to a child born in Malta and to a child born in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States or anywhere else. No application for citizenship is needed: the child is Maltese from birth.

Two situations need more care. For children born abroad between 21 September 1964 and 31 July 1989, Maltese citizenship passed automatically only through the father. A child of a Maltese mother born in that period was not Maltese at birth but can register as a citizen using Form I, at a government fee of €150 plus €50 on approval. Second, citizenship does not pass automatically to the child of a parent who became Maltese by registering as a descendant. Those children need an individual assessment of whether they can register in their own right.

Registering a birth in Malta

When a baby is born in Malta, the birth must be notified to the Identità Public Registry within 15 days. The hospital issues the Notification of Birth of a Baby, and the parents notify the birth online with an eID, in person at the Public Registry in Marsa or in Victoria, Gozo, or by post. The notification costs €2.60, and the family is told by SMS or email when the birth certificate is ready.

A birth certificate extract costs €2.60 at the counter or €2.50 online, and a full certificate costs €10.25 at the counter or €9.95 online. Because the birth is registered in Malta, the original certificate is not needed for the first passport application.

Registering a birth that took place abroad

A child born abroad is Maltese from birth, but the Maltese state only knows about the child once the foreign birth is registered with the Public Registry. Registration is the gateway to a Maltese passport and identity documents, and it costs €2.60, plus any administrative charges when it is done through a mission.

The Public Registry needs the original civil birth certificate, or a true copy certified by the authority that issued it. The original is kept permanently, so families should order additional certified copies before they start. Church certificates are not accepted. A certificate issued outside the EU needs an apostille or legalisation; a certificate issued in another EU member state is exempt under EU rules on public documents. Certificates in a language other than English or Maltese need an official translation, or an EU multilingual standard form where one exists.

Registration of a foreign birth is made in person, either at the Public Registry in Malta, where a relative can attend on the family's behalf, or through a Maltese embassy, high commission or consulate. It cannot be done by post or online. The Public Registry does not publish a processing time, so the registration should be started well before any planned travel.

The first Maltese passport

Once the birth is registered, the child can be issued a Maltese passport. A passport for a child under 10 costs €16, or €60 through the urgent service, which is ready in 4 working hours for applications made in Malta. Passports for young children carry a shorter validity than adult passports, so families renew them more often.

The application uses Form A. Both parents must sign section 6 in front of a recommender, with original ink signatures; scanned or electronic signatures are refused. A parent who lives abroad signs Consent Form I at a Maltese mission, which sends it to the Passport Office. Babies and children under 6 do not attend the appointment. Children aged 0 to 5 need two photographs, one of which the recommender endorses as a true likeness of the child. Abroad, the application is made through the nearest Maltese mission, which adds its own fee and courier charges. Our Maltese passport guide covers fees and recommender rules in detail.

Where families lose time

Most delays come from mismatched paperwork. Names, spellings and dates must match exactly across the child's birth certificate, the parents' certificates and the parents' Maltese records, and special characters must be transliterated consistently. Parents who married abroad often also need their marriage registered in Malta. Families who left Malta a generation ago may find that the Maltese parent's own birth was never registered, which has to be resolved first. Where a non-Maltese parent is also becoming Maltese, our page on citizenship by marriage explains how the two processes fit together.

How Mirabello Consultancy helps

Mirabello Consultancy is a Swiss advisory firm with offices in Zurich, Dubai and Hong Kong SAR, supporting Maltese families remotely. You can register a birth and apply for a passport yourself; our role is to make the paperwork right the first time. We confirm the child's citizenship position, order and check the certificates, coordinate apostilles and translations, prepare the registration and Form A, arrange the consent signatures and the recommender, book the appointment at the Public Registry, the Passport Office or the right mission, and follow each step through to the passport.

Every step is decided by Identità or Aġenzija Komunità Malta; no third party can speed up or influence a decision. Government fees are paid at cost and shown separately from our service fee, which we confirm per case after a free consultation. All of our services for Maltese families are on our Maltese citizen services page, and families with Maltese grandparents can read about descent routes on our citizenship by descent hub.