Moving to Malta Info/Help (Complicated maybe in a good way :S)

malta has superb internet connections due to the booming i gaming industry here.

Hi Jacob,

welcome to the forum.

You should look at the residency options for third-country nationals as you will only have 3 months after you arrive to move from tourist status to resident (see the 'visa' and other related sections).

TCN's are not allowed to apply as self-employed.

Your best option appears to be as a partner of an EU national in a durable relationship. The Maltese define this as having lived together in Malta for two years. Proving it with documents from outside Malta could be a problem.

If you succeed you will have the same rights as an EU citizen!

There are other options like residency through a work permit or economic self-sufficiency or staying as a student but will not give you the same rights.

Starting your own business as a TCN comes with rather high financial obligations. You would have to research that further as to whether it is an option. There again being the registered partner of a TCN makes it much easier.

Energy Management is most certainly a very interesting option here in Malta. What services does your company offer ?

Cheers
Ricky

Thank you for the Responses

Good to know that Malta has strong stable internet. This is what I did assume with all the IGaming stuff going on. Just good to know for certain.

As for a Partnership with a EU national don't see why I couldn't just make my GF a partner then?

Quote "Your best option appears to be as a partner of an EU national in a durable relationship. The Maltese define this as having lived together in Malta for two years. Proving it with documents from outside Malta could be a problem."
^^^
- Good to know about that piece of information I had not seen this written anywhere. Could you provide me with a URL for this info if you found it on a website.

As for the services we provide it would be a very long list but we specialize in Energy-management for HVAC systems through BAS and Remote Access. Along with monitoring, installing, commissioning, servicing, & maintaining these systems.

HVAC - Heating, Ventilation, & Air-Conditioning
BAS - Building automation systems

Thanks Jacob

Hi Jacob,

here is the link to the info document:

http://www.foreign.gov.mt/Library/PDF/CEA7-EEA.pdf

As I went through this route with my American girlfriend the 'living together in Malta for two years' was what we were asked to show after we asked them what evidence they wanted.. Other 'documentary evidence' might have been possible but we did not try that.

You will probably find Energy management systems in large private buildings , government buildings , factories and similiar projects. I have no experience in the construction industry but my feeling is that you will be up against a well-networked system of Maltese give-and take's with party political links. The building industry is probably the biggest sponsor of the political parties and Malta is a very small island where everybody knows each other.

Cheers
Ricky

thebigjg wrote:

Good to know that Malta has strong stable internet.

The internet is stable, but depending where you live the electricity supply isn't. There are several power cuts (esp. in summer) and I monitored values between 70V to 253V and 35 to 75Hz - so it's advisable having at least an UPS system as backup and voltage regulator. 

Energy-management for HVAC systems through BAS and Remote Access

Some recent projects like Tigne Point and Airport Business Center are running a BAS, the majority of buildings - even large ones - still have conventional (decentralized) control and monitoring systems.

Remote access systems are still rare and if then used mainly for maintenance, not for operation.

But energy optimization, energy efficiency as well as the involvement of renewable energy sources will be important for Malta ... only the people here must be convinced of the advantages ...

Large energy consumers like the luxury hotels in St. Julians have a lot of single split-unit HVACs attached at the outer walls and numbers of ceiling mounted AHUs for heating and cooling instead of a big energy efficient centralized HVAC station ... I think it's simply a question of availability and maintenance here in Malta.

Markus

Hi Markus,

great reply and sounds like a lot of expertise !

Thanks.

Cheers
Ricky

thanks, but the "common practice" here in Malta is pretty disillusioning for an energy-conscious technician ...

Hi Matt,
Interested to read your comment about the power surge during summer. We are moving from the UK and not having any problems here with power would be interested to know how the USP works.
Thanks

The Groove wrote:

would be interested to know how the USP works.
Thanks

The UPS (uninterruptible power supply) provides a "clean" electrical power supply.

Depending on your needs you can buy a small UPS for your SOHO equipment for 200,- or an expensive unit for powering your whole house/business

Most of contemporary household appliances can manage variations in voltage and frequency, but some don't .
(e.g. forget "touch lamps" in Malta since they will sometimes switch on and off during the night and the fuse of strong electric heaters can blow if voltage drops down).

and so on and so forth ...

Several power cuts during last summer in Sliema and Valletta forced a number of shop owners to close their business for the rest of the day because without light and AC it's not possible to work resp. no customer wants to enter the shop.

And it would not be too complicated, if government (tapping EU funds) would install PV systems on all flat roofs of the gov. buildings and battery rooms in the cellars which could store enough power to compensate or at least reduce the impacts of such power cuts.
But it's more prestigious to dream about swimming solar-/windpark islands, a high voltage transmission line from Sicily power station or a transformation of delimara fuel power station into a much more efficient gas power station within two years only (acc. PL idea ) ... and 2 or 3 years later, neither one of these "energy innovations" nor the solar-/PV installions are done ... but the overall electrical consumption will have been increased a lot - facit: price for electricity goes up, price for water goes up etc. etc.

oh, dear ... but I think even Malta's time will come

Thanks Ricky for the URL and Markus for the info on the power issues to the consumer.

I find that numbers speak best for energy optimization & energy efficiency improvements through implementation of new technologies (Or just new to the area). When a business can see an ROI as low as 1 year backed by previous installations and references. This usually puts a smile on their face.

As for the sporadically distributed split systems there is still saving to be made with centralized control, ie. through night setbacks, load predictions, load shedding, and runtime control, etc.

Along with coupling energy efficient technologies such as, VAV control, Heat/cool recovery, VFD's, VRF, etc, and savings in DHW.
There will almost always be demand in the energy management sector

But I think we have gotten off the original topic lol

Thank you for all the information from what I can see my best option would be to apply for "partner of an EU national in a durable relationship" and in the meantime work online and go for my P.Eng and apply for Visa status with defined income coming from outside Malta or fall back to the student Visa if necessary.

sorry to be completely off topic but speaking of power cuts I am wondering how much time usually takes to fix them. this morning it was more than 2 hours without electricity

The time interval for power to be restored is impossible to know. There are very large factors in play from the reason why power was lost in the first place to the response time and work load of the service company, etc ...

ie. Human error, system improvements, weather, etc
Then comes into effect the severity of the above, transformer shutdown due to over heat, transmission lines lost in storms, over draws from the consumers, etc.

No way to put a time on paper the only thing you could find out is your providers average down time by asking.

between 10 seconds and 9 hours

thanks thebigjg for the detailed explanation

ops, matm911... 9 hours sounds awful. I really hope I won't see that

So from what I am reading from the document Ricky provided me with.

Quote 1 "Family Members
Family members of an EEA national have
the right to join and accompany him/her in
Malta. The family is defined as:
- The spouse"
etc.

Quote 2 "Employment/Self-employment
EEA nationals and their family members can:
- accept offers of work and seek employment in Malta;
- work (whether as an employee or in selfemployment);
- set up a business."

So from what I am reading when me and my gf get married I will have no issues living, working, and starting a business in Malta.

She has been on my case the last while anyways jokes. We were planning to go forward shortly anyway

Hi Jacob,

that is correct about your rights when you are married to a EU citizen.

Best option would be to be married before you arrive as as soon as you enter the Schengen area you 3 month time line starts ticking.

Gaining the rights through a durable relationship is definitly much more complicated

Cheers
Ricky

Jacob,
You are clearly in a specific field and getting some serious qualifications under your belt, but while Malta is increasingly seeing energy top bill in the papers, and no doubt needs more engineers with nous in the field, don't expect to swan into something directly in that sector.  I ran several pieces giving expat insider advice and tips (visa, jobs, expectations etc) here on maltainsideout, and I suggest you read the jobs and visa ones carefully for some clues. The Visa will be an issue - you will need to find a job that the employer can say that no locally based personnel could do. Not impossible, but takes time. A US friend of mine got a job in i-gaming (big sector here) but her partner had immense problems with a visa as he was unable to find a job that could come under the category of needing special expertise. She wrote the visa article in fact. I do know of a facilities management company and could pass you their details - they need engineers, and work on large commercial premises, but not sure if you're doing a PhD or so, that it would be your thing.

Re. setting up your own business, this would be an option but you'd need some legal and accounting advice on the costs as legal residency status attached to it seems aimed more at High Net Worth Individuals. I know a US expat who's been here two years and she is not in that bracket but is working from Malta, tax-efficiently and legit. I'll find out more re costs from her.

If you have income from abroad, as you seem to indicate with the high-speed internet Q, then that's a clincher. You'd need to show you can support yourself here (not sure of exact amounts of income required to prove to authorities but I am sure legal firms sites have the info - try this one for instance which has an overview of various incentives offered to overseas residents; tax  incentives being the prime motivator for a move to Malta for many expats.

On high-speed internet, well, yes, it's here! The two companies to look at are Melita Cable and Go.com.mt (latter the former state telco, now privatised; the former a long-running cable operator). I am just about to upgrade my speed on Melita, which offers TV bundles too. Shop around. Your rental place may come with internet anyway. Both companies are hungry to get business so check them out in detail and compare. If the i-gaming industry runs it biz from here, then there has to be robust enough connectivity and services.

Others have mentioned power cuts, but I rarely get them where I live - central Malta, below Mdina. I don't live in mega urban areas like Sliema, St Julian's or Valletta though.

Hope this gives some pointers on your various Qs.

Liz

btw, "planned" power cuts are daily announced in Times of Malta

Scheduled power cuts and other maintenance are also online at Enemalta here too. Though who among us has time to scour these to check! It's a case of waking up, just whirring up email and seeing the power go off at 8 - 9am on the dot! Usually I find it's back on by around 1pm though if I do get a cut. Rarely all day unless station blows up. Melita cable can have issues too - and those can last longer than power cuts and I find customer services hotlines aren't that responsive at Melita.

Thanks for the reply lizayling and the link to MaltaInsideAndOut.

Although me being married to a Maltese citizen should make my whole process allot shorter and easier from my understanding compared to the story of the people listed in the link you provided. And I have some secondary things to fall back upon such as my qualification are somewhat in demand in Malta from seeing the job posting on the government of Malta website. And worse case scenario I can work from the internet like I mentioned, Or apply for a student visa.

And I found this quote from another post on this website "AFAIK the figures are still "capital of at least €14,000 or a weekly income of €84.95 or, in the case of a married couple, a capital of €23,300 or a weekly income of €93.10."
^^^^^
Also the above would not be an issue for me.

So It looks like I am in good shape with several options to fall back on. Hope I'm not proven wrong if/when I go forward lol.

Thanks again everyone anymore points would be appreciated

Hi there, i will be interested in taking a look at your resume. When are you planning to move to Malta?
Send me a private message if interested.

About 20mins ago the power came back after a 1,5hrs blackout.
Acc. Times of Malta 55% of the island were black.
If you run an Online-Business that's not nice

"As a result, 55 per cent of the island suffered a power cut." - thus ignoring Gozo, which was 100% out

I guess I will have to have battery backup or be self sufficent/off grid in some sences . Unless my provider is also down and without backup lol

thebigjg wrote:

I guess I will have to have battery backup or be self sufficent/off grid in some sences . Unless my provider is also down and without backup lol

I wonder what the chances of Melita etc having full end-to-end UPS? I run a internet based business and had staff sitting about for 2 hours yesterday, if we invested in UPS, would we have stayed up??

I doubt it.