Malta has published 8th annual report revealing downward trend of applications during the year 2021 due to Covid measures (only 23 applications were received by the CMA). The Eighth Annual Report by the Regulator GCES has been laid on the Table of the House of Representatives on the 17thApril 2023, by the Minister responsible for citizenship as provided for in Article 25(9) of the Maltese Citizenship Act, Cap 188. This Report covers a calendar year starting from the 1st January 2021 on through the 31st December 2021 on the Individual Investor Programme and Granting of Citizenship for Exceptional Services of the Government of Malta.
Here is a quick summary of the report
- The launching of this Programme this would result in a grand total of €1,130,825,000 contributions collected by the Community Malta Agency (CMA) in respect of this Programme.
- The total number of applications received by CMA, since the inception of the Programme, stood at 2,245 as at end of year 2021.
- Main Applicants’ principal nationality, and the five regions are Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Africa. Over 80% of applicants who filed for maltese citizenship for investment, received had single nationality.
Number of IIP Applications received by the CMA
- 2015 – 484
- 2016 – 436
- 2017 – 371
- 2018 – 286
- 2019 – 328
- 2020 – 317
- 2021 – 23
- Total – 2,245
- The amount of applications which were approved, thus applications for which the due diligence has been positively concluded and a Letter of Approval in Principle has been issued during 2021, amounted to 109.
- Since the inception of the Programme, one will note that the total number of Letters of Approval issued till 31st December 2021 amounts to 1,608.
- since the inception of the Programme up till the end of December 2021, 1452 Main Applicants had their application successfully concluded. The IIP Regulations stipulate a threshold of 1,800 successful Applicants (excluding Dependants) for the whole duration of the Programme.
- The overall rate of not approved applications stood at 51% during the year 2021. Since launch of the scheme, a total of 69 files.
- The majority of rejected or withdrawn applications originated from Europe with a total of 48 applications, followed by 37 applications from Asia. applications which were either refused or withdrawn. The number of applications which were not approved during the year 2021 was 112 (an average of approximately 9 applications per month).
- The majority of the Applicants opted to rent a property (over 80% on average). Sliema and St. Julian’s enjoy a dominant position both as regards purchased and leased properties.
The Office of Regulator of Granting Citizenship for Exceptional Services (ORGCES) is the government agency responsible for publishing annual report on the citizenship program. OR-GCES kept under proper surveillance the processes involved in the evaluation, adjudication and rejection of the applications that were processed by the CMA during the period covered by this Report.
Download the full report
