New I.D. card rules

The Department for Residence and Expatriate Affairs has announced that as from Monday 8 July the collection of residence documents is to be made from: Basement Level, Evans Building, Valletta on the following days: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8:30 am until 11:30 am.

Does anyone know anybody who has applied by post who has actually got the new e-Residency permit.

That is comforting to know SMeddie.

We went to collect our Receipts last Monday and when we got to see someone in room 8 (where we were told to go when we submitted our papers three weeks previous) we were told they no longer issue them.  Wasted journey for us. Fortunately Valletta is not far from where we live, but I feel for those who make the trek from Gozo.  The official we saw, who was very pleasant, was unable to give any timescale for when our residency cards will be ready.

Charley

CharleyFarley wrote:

That is comforting to know SMeddie.

We went to collect our Receipts last Monday and when we got to see someone in room 8 (where we were told to go when we submitted our papers three weeks previous) we were told they no longer issue them.  Wasted journey for us. Fortunately Valletta is not far from where we live, but I feel for those who make the trek from Gozo.  The official we saw, who was very pleasant, was unable to give any timescale for when our residency cards will be ready.

Charley

sadly this happens all too often - i think its about time someone took responsibility for this and announced formal timescales as it leaves thousands in limbo.

Hello, my first message ever!
It's regards the e- residence ID card
I am going to apply for the Partner route, apparently it's Form F
I have been living with my Maltese girlfriend for nearly 3 years and I don't work

Therefore could you help me please if you know what are the requirements to apply for the Partner route to getting this ID card, I have the old ID card from a few years back when I registered.

Cheers

Emmo

Emmo wrote:

Hello, my first message ever!
It's regards the e- residence ID card
I am going to apply for the Partner route, apparently it's Form F
I have been living with my Maltese girlfriend for nearly 3 years and I don't work

Therefore could you help me please if you know what are the requirements to apply for the Partner route to getting this ID card, I have the old ID card from a few years back when I registered.



Emmo

I would have thought that your partner would be perfectly placed to help you, ideal, no?

Hello Emma

What does she need to show?

I mean what are the requirements?

Thanks for your help

Hi Emmo,

as far as I have been informed the 'partnership thing' does not work with a Maltese citizen as it has to do with freedom of movement within the EU and a Maltese citizen in Malta has not left Malta.

The requirements are listed in the 'Guidelines' for residence options. In particular you would have to the same address documented  for more than two years ( rental agreement in both names for example).

Why do you want to try this route as you are British ?

Cheers
Ricky

Hi Ricky

Thanks for your email.

Yes Iam British, but I don't work here, you could called me a house husband without being married.

I have no bills, no rent, as property is owned by girlfriend...

But my previous ID is at the same address as my girlfriend so maybe that will be okay? She is Maltese and works in a good job so we have the income threshold sorted...

So what do I do? How do I get a e residence ID card or whatever it's called?

Hi Emmo,

you can't do anything!

She has to apply for you as a family member with the risk that they will not accept it as she is Maltese. I've never heard that they accepted this route with Maltese citizens.

Let me know if it works in your case.Thanks.

You will both have to go the e-residence office with the documentation and wait it out.

Cheers
Ricky

Thanks Ricky

I just become a holiday maker then

They can't stop me coming here and staying? Can they?

Medical issues worry me, what happens if I get ill?

Hi Emmo,

no, they can't stop you coming and going.

But it does have a few consequences if you stay a tourist. You can apply as ecoonmically self-sufficient and just have to show something like 16.000 € on a bank account and health insurance coverage or entitlement.

The main issue will be medical coverage!  How have you been covering yourself in the past years? Through the reciprocal health care agreement?

Cheers
Ricky

Hi Ricky

What's best way to get yourself covered regards medical

I thought being english we go free!

Thanks for info on economic self sufficient I might try that.

Hi Emmo,

you don't exactly go free anymore but you can get a basic coverage if you are British and have no other coverage ,through the Reciprocal Health Agreement but you have to go to the Entitlement office in Valletta to get the document.

Another option would be a private insurance that is not too expensive if you sign up before you turn 60 (about 50 €/month or less).

Cheers
Ricky

ricky wrote:

Hi Emmo,

you don't exactly go free anymore but you can get a basic coverage if you are British and have no other coverage ,through the Reciprocal Health Agreement but you have to go to the Entitlement office in Valletta to get the document.

Another option would be a private insurance that is not too expensive if you sign up before you turn 60 (about 50 €/month or less).

Cheers
Ricky

and where is that private insurance offer ricky?

Hi toon,

I have the 'Private Hospital Value Option' plan with Atlas that belongs to AXA.

Yearly rate is 604 €

Cheers
Ricky

cheers thanks for that

Hi all
I have finally sent off my application for eresidency by snail-mail. My landlady has agreed to change our electricity and water tarrif to the Residential rate, but looking at the forms on the ARMS website, I need my new eresidency card in order to qualify. Can I wait until I have the new card and apply retrospectively and request a rebate? It seams most unfair that I have been living here for nearly a year and am still paying through the nose for utilities due to the authorities incompetence with issuing the new cards.....

NO REFUNDS WILL BE GIVEN TO ANY APPLICANT

toonarmy9752 wrote:

as from Monday 8 July the collection of residence documents is to be made from: Basement Level, Evans Building, Valletta on the following days: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8:30 am until 11:30 am.

Is that for the collection of the e-Residence documents? I still need to collect mine as I didnt have time yet

yes

in mailing the MHAS via their contact link on their webpage  last week - i got this today by way of reply... 7 weeks after applying. Dear Sir,

Further to your request hereunder, and according to the Department of Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs, you may wish to note that the department has hundreds of applications that need to be keyed in, so it is going to take a bit longer. Once the card is ready for collection, you will receive a letter of collection through the mail.

I was looking for information re. what the PIN numbers were for on the letter stating that the eResidency card was ready for collection, and found this blog/thread. I read it through and thought 'oh boy  you don't know what you're in for, before you encounter the bureaucracy 'Maltese style'. 

I collected my eRecidency card today. What an ordeal it's been! I received the appointment time on January 3rd to appear on April 9th, where I waded and waited through the total shambles of submitting the application. I received the A4 interim ID card replacement receipt - which I was told 'you can go and transact any official business with the banks etc.' but which proved to be as useful as a receipt from McDonald's because apparently nobody from the government bothered to inform anybody in official capacity about the fact that there will be people presenting such document instead of the old ID ending with 12345A on it.
So after 7 months I finally received the letter on July 17th stating that the new eResidence card was available for collection.

I optimistically thought that since submitting the application at Castille office was like entering the refugee camp in Darfur, this shouldn't be so bad - how stupid was I?
We were ushered into a makeshift tent to wait for an hour under the blistering sun. Then an official started letting people in, in groups on 10 while he at that point in time collected the receipts from those people to indicate the clerks inside who were there to collect their eResidency cards. Up until that time there were some 60-70 people who had shown up, standing and waiting around idly, getting frustrated and fights broke out for queue jumping - what queue?? Instead of issuing a queing number like it's done at a meat counter - or better yet - collect the receipts in order of arrival to indicate the order in which people come there - it's better to have push and shove situation in your hands.

Once inside, we were not asked to present any form of ID, but just handed the card. I was too glad to get out of there after 2 hrs of waiting, thinking that they couldn't possibly handle the amount of people at that rate by closing time of 11:30am to notice that there was a spelling mistake in the address on my card.

Yes - on the face of it - it seems like a minor gripe, and I don't think mine a special case by any standard. The thing is - I'm not a recent arrival here in Malta. I had done this endless hours of queuing at government departments already years ago. I have been here, entered into the local database so to say, since 2001 as work permit holder, an EU citizen when Malta wasn't even part of EU, and Freedom of movement holder since 2003 as being married to a Maltese citizen, and all the while working for a Maltese company and paying the local income tax and NI contributions for more than a decade. One would assume my 'data footprint' of personal information should be the size of Gozo by now. So yes, I was feeling rather frustrated to be sent back to the start to use Monopoly expression - and to be told that my Maltese husband had to accompany me for the application appointment as if I was out to defraud the system after a decade of official existence in all possible records here??

However, what I truly cannot understand is, how is it possible that a clerk enters into the system our home address, from my husband's Maltese ID card, and him spelling it out loud to her - (and my old one there on the desk next to her) into a database, then she issues the interim receipt with all correct details - and now they issue a diffent spelling on the address details on the eResidence card for me??? Well - it all ''sounds very much like it if you read it out loud'' but that doesn't really work in this day and age where you have to deal with databases which recognize only correct data, letters, numbers....

So after 7 months of pointless frustration we're still apparently living in different addresses which doesn't bode well with water&electricity bills... or for any other official circumstance.
I'm not ready to face another endless waiting and using up my annual leave days for this charade for a mistake they made. Then again - I'm used to running around with a hand written note on a tiny scrap of paper stating that I'm entitled to free health care as spouse of Maltese citizen from Mater Dei Accounts department, which means more than the 4 marriage certificates issued by Maltese Public Registry I've taken in over the years to prove this is indeed the case.
Welcome to sunny Malta! Enjoy your stay and bring a thick book and antacids with you if you need to transact any bureaucratic business here.

Dear Mayham, dear all, i am an Italian girl married with a Jordinian boy.
For our job we move to Malta and we applied for residence card.
They told me that before plastic card they give you a blu paper.
But this blu paper is a limited residence permission?
What is written exactly? There is written when it will be expire? And after how long time they give you the blu paper? And after hoe long timme you received letter with PIN code?

Thank you because all is very confused  :-(

Maryam79 wrote:

But this blu paper is a limited residence permission?

no, its a receipt proving you have applied

But if you ask for paper residence permission (NO plastic card) you always have to wait?

During period waiting plastic card we will be without residence permit, even temporary?

if you are an EU citizen, you don't apply for residency - you notify the authorities of your intention to reside in Malta.

Somebody can tell if there is a paper residence permit or if the ONLY is this palstic card....

But for my husband, who is Jordinian, he needs. and we have to stay more than three months  :-(

to make faster we can ask for a paper permit?

Maryam79 wrote:

Somebody can tell if there is a paper residence permit or if the ONLY is this palstic card....

the plastic card is a combination of a residence card and an ID card, and is the only residence document required (or available) for EU citizens and their family members (eg your husband)

Best is to apply in person - get there early in the day, and queue, taking along all the forms and supporting documents listed on the forms

Thank you very much for your answer. I hope no take too much time from when we bring docs to Castilla Palace until they give you blu paper.
Some people said that even for blu paper you have to wait more than two months....

According to some reports, they are no longer issuing the receipts.

i hope  :-)  thank you again for your informations.

Re some of the above, what I have noticed is there are sometimes different spellings for street names e.g Imrik and Mriek, which is the same street.
I have also decided that I can't be arsed with hassle so I will get a notary to certify and submit our applications.
Met a very nice and most helpful woman by the name of Rosalie yesterday, at the Entitlement Office yesterday, which by the way has moved to 12 Merchants Street.

I can confirm they still issue the receipts. I have one dated 15 July.
Hopefully the ID cards will follow soon.....

this is indeed strange as i know some guys who have also applied within the last 10 days and didnt get a receipt at all but they still took the old cards etc off them and the old res certs too.  looks like more of the same old same old.....confusion.

The 'blue paper' is merely a receipt stating that you have submitted your application - it was not accepted as legal form of ID which was rather inconvenient as they took away the old ID card. Best advice I can give is to make photocopies of all documents you have before handing the originals in - at least you would have some form of proof that you already have a locally issued ID number you have been registered to the system with for x number of years.

I was told by The Department for Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs that the papers (set of copies to be submitted to them, and originals to verify) had to be submitted in person, which meant that my Maltese husband had to accompany me and present his ID and passport in person. So I don't know whether they will accept your application if presented by your Notary... then again, if your Notary is related to/knows someone in the department...

georgeingozo wrote:

if you are an EU citizen, you don't apply for residency - you notify the authorities of your intention to reside in Malta.

The following applies to non-Maltese EU citizens:

‘…………The right to reside in another EU country is your fundamental and personal right and is granted to you directly by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

The right is therefore not dependent upon you having fulfilled administrative procedures.

This basically means that once you meet the conditions, you have the right to reside from that moment and your right is not granted to you by a decision of the host EU country.

The documents you or your family members might be issued with by the host EU country merely acknowledge that you have the right………...’

Source: Page 17 of Freedom to move and live in Europe: A Guide to your rights as an EU citizen, published by the Directorate-General Justice European Commission:

ec.europa.eu/justice/policies/citizenship/docs/guide_free_movement_low.pdf