Maltese Passport Renewal, in Malta and Abroad

Who issues Maltese passports

Maltese passports are issued by the Passport Office of Identità, the government agency that also runs the Public Registry. Every application, whether it is made at the Passport Office in Marsa or at a Maltese embassy, high commission or consulate abroad, is decided and printed by Identità in Malta. A passport cannot be renewed online, because your photograph, fingerprints and signature must be captured in person each time.

Renewal is therefore a short process with one fixed point: a personal appearance. Everything around that appearance, from the form to the photographs, the consent signatures for children and the right identity documents, can be prepared in advance. Most delays come from files that arrive incomplete, not from the decision itself.

How much a Maltese passport costs in 2026

A Maltese adult passport costs €70 when you apply between September and March and €80 between April and August, the peak travel season. The same adult fee applies from age 16. Passports for children aged 10 to 15 cost €40, and passports for children under 10 cost €16. Adult passports are valid for 10 years and passports for children aged 10 to 15 for 5 years; passports for younger children carry a shorter validity.

If your passport was lost, stolen or destroyed while it was still valid, a supplement of €15 is added for the oath you swear about the loss, and you need an original police report issued in Malta. Identità does not accept foreign police reports, which matters if the loss happened abroad. All fees are payable in cash, by card or by cheque, except that cheques are not accepted for urgent applications or for amounts under €20.

Is there a fast track for a Maltese passport?

Yes, and it is the only official fast track across Maltese citizen services. The Passport Office runs an urgent service that produces a passport in 4 working hours, against 4 working days for a standard application. The urgent fee is €160 for adults, €80 for children aged 10 to 15 and €60 for children under 10. The urgent timeframe applies only to applications made in Malta. From abroad you can ask the mission to treat an application as urgent and the urgent fee applies, but no 4-hour timeframe is offered.

Mirabello Consultancy does not speed up or influence a government decision, and no third party can. What we do is make sure that the application you take to the counter is complete and correct the first time, which is the single largest factor in how quickly a passport reaches you.

Renewing a Maltese passport from abroad

Maltese citizens living in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and elsewhere renew through the nearest Maltese embassy, high commission or consulate. You attend in person for biometrics, the mission sends your application to the Passport Office in Malta, and the new passport is returned by courier or held for collection in Malta if you prefer.

Three points make applications from abroad slower and more expensive than renewals in Malta. First, each mission adds its own processing fee and courier charges, and some charge in local currency. Second, appointments at busy missions can be booked out for several weeks in peak season. Third, there is no official processing time for applications made abroad, and an application can be held while your Maltese nationality is confirmed if your records are incomplete. Planning ahead, with a complete file, is the best protection against all three.

If you do not hold a valid Maltese ID card, the mission will ask for a photograph endorsed by a recommender, and Form A sections 7 and 8 must be completed. Where your citizenship rests on descent and your records in Malta are thin, the mission may also ask for details of your parents' and grandparents' civil status.

Renewing a passport for a child

Children's passports carry the strictest paperwork. Both parents must sign section 6 of Form A in front of the recommender, with original ink signatures; scanned or electronic signatures are refused. If one parent lives abroad, that parent signs Consent Form I at a Maltese mission, which forwards it to the Passport Office. Children under 6 do not attend the appointment; from age 6 they attend for facial biometrics. Children aged 0 to 5 need two photographs, one of which the recommender endorses as a true likeness.

Because a passport for a young child has a shorter validity, families renew children's passports more often than their own. It pays to align renewals so that one appointment covers several family members.

Who can act as a recommender

A recommender confirms your identity on the form and, where needed, on your photograph. For an adult, the recommender must be a Maltese national with a university degree who has known you for at least two years. For a minor, the recommender may be a Maltese, EU or Commonwealth national living in Malta with a university degree who has known the child for at least two years. Finding a qualifying recommender is a common obstacle for families who have lived abroad for many years, and it is worth solving before you book the appointment.

How Mirabello Consultancy helps

Mirabello Consultancy is a Swiss advisory firm with offices in Zurich, Dubai and Hong Kong SAR. We support Maltese citizens and their families remotely, working with the Passport Office and with Maltese missions abroad. You can renew a passport yourself, and many people do. Our role is to remove the friction: we check your eligibility and documents, prepare Form A, review photographs and consent signatures before the appointment, book the appointment at the right office, and follow the application through to collection.

Where your passport renewal sits inside a larger family question, such as registering a newborn and applying for a first passport or a spouse becoming Maltese through citizenship by marriage, we coordinate the steps so that each document is obtained once and used for every application. All three services are brought together on our Maltese citizen services page.

Government fees are always paid at cost and shown separately from Mirabello's service fee, which we confirm per case after a free consultation. For other nationalities, our passport renewal service covers renewals for citizens of several Caribbean and Pacific programmes.