Malta toys with extending passport sale through Surveymonkey online poll

A referendum of sorts is underway: the agency that runs Malta’s sale of passports, Identity Malta, has launched an online poll to ask the public if the Individual Investor Programme should be expanded.

Over 1,100 families have applied for the programme, generating over €590 million in direct payments to Malta’s posterity fund and consolidated fund.

But the programme is capped at some 1,800 main applicants: that does not include dependants. The number of main applicants is so far at just over 30% of the quota fixed at the start of the IIP.

The first question in the online poll asks the public if the number of applications under the IIP should be capped at law or left at the open discretion of the government.

The Maltese government bills it as “one of the leading and most rigorous ones globally as each application must go through a four-tiered due diligence process.”

The programme was designed by citizenship experts Henley & Partners, which takes a 4% cut on each of the €650,000 applications for Maltese passports.

“The main objective of the updating and revision of the Programme is to ensure it remains at the forefront in reputation, attractiveness and rigorousness, and at the same time to address those administrative processes which require revisiting following the experience gained in their implementation,” Identity Malta said.

But the agency is so far resisting freedom of information requests calling it to disclose the identities of the citizens who are acquiring their passports, or data as to which are the leading agencies securing the most successful applications for citizenship.

Applicants for a Maltese passport under the IIP should have at least a 12-month residency status in Malta although this has never been understood as implying physical presence on the island. The other requirements are the purchase (minimum €350,000) or lease (minimum €16,000 per annum) of property; a contribution of €650,000 per main applicant plus a contribution in respect of the spouse (€25,000) or other dependants (€25,000 – son/daughters under 18, €50,000 – unmarried sons/daughters between 18 and 26 and parents or parents-in-law above 55) accompanying the main applicant; and the purchase of Malta Government Bonds or locally listed securities and equities amounting to not less than €150,000.