Maltese Cost of Living: Unreasonable Request!

Sorry, the last time I changed lap tops I decided no more Office products - so I use OpenOffice. It should be readable by Excel though.

Actually I've now saved it to xls (Excel) format - let me know if you can read it now;

I have them on my on blog (I don't know that you can add documents to the forum). So here is the Blog Post

Blog Post

Here's the spreadsheet

Outgoings & Income Spreadsheet (Excel Version)

Let me know of any errors and omissions!

Good luck

Hi. I'm a former physician moving to Malta for a year to improve mi english level. I'll be traveling with my sister and 2 friends of mine on scolarships for an entire year. I'm making plans and reading some blogs about Malta and I'm in love with the country even if some areas are a little bit filthy (so I've read, although I don't think it'd be worst than Venezuela where I currently live). We'll be studing in St. Julian so I'm wondering which location should be best for us. We'd like some place near St. Julian so we don't have to worry about being late for classes but not too expensive and not too loud. We've made a budget of €2.000-2.200 a month for 5 people, which includes: rent (3 bedrooms minimum) of a a non-luxurious furnished apartment, utilities, mobiles, internet, food (€180 each a month) and transportation. We don't have expensive necessities and we don't eat outside much (once a week at most); most of the time we'll be eating salads, fruits and poultry (some meat once or twice a week, some rice and some pasta from time to time since we are not big fans of rice). We maybe relocate and become permanent residents in Malta after the course, if we have a good experience living there and think we have good opportunities to create a business there in website design which is my current business, and/or with translation (italian-spanish-english). I'd like to know the input of somebody that lives there currently. Please be specific about cost of living per person and business opportunities in Malta not in the tourism sector, please. Thanks in advance. PS: I'd like to know about working opportunities if I decide get back on practice of Family Medicine, too.

HI Jonathan,

welcome to the forum.

With your quoted budget you will be fine. Check out previous posts in the varius sections. Most of your questions have already been answered or commented on.

Do the scholarships include sorting out the visas and residency issues? Will you be visiting a language school? I'm not sure if you need a VIsa being from Venezuela but a Schengen visa is only valid for 3 months and not extendable. Three months will be much to short to sort out work permits and residency issues for 5 people!

Specialist doctors are usually looked for here in Malta but self-employment for non-EU citizens is not allowed unless you invest certain higher amounts in your business and employ several Maltese workers. So you will have to look for employers that will apply for a work permit as you cannot apply on your own. The process can take months.

But translations and webdesign are in demand  so it should not be a problem for you. Your sister and friends will have to look into their own job chances and residency ( it would be ordinary residency , not permanent residency).

The options would be residency through language school visit , work permit or self-sufficiency. The residence permit is always issued for as long as work contracts and school course runs , but at the longest for one year at a time.

Cheers
Ricky

Hi. Thanks Ricky. You were most helpful. I totally forgot to tell that I'm EU-citizen (portuguese) and so is my sister; thats why I'm making long term plans to live and create a business there. My two friends should be fine as the School offers help over the whole visa/permits nightmare. After the course, if they're interested in staying, I can ask for their residency as their employer, I think. Thanks for the input about the web/translation business market as well as the physician market. It's good to know that I have options since I'm in love with the country, that's why I'm making long term plans to begin with... I love what I've been reading and the photos I've seen, at least; I know that maybe my opinion of the country could change totally when I've spended some time there (reading-watching photos is different than actually living somewhere, I'm not naive) but in general Malta seems awesome to live, specially for self employed people that don't want a strict working schedule and wearing suit and tie to work (I hate it): Malta seems the perfect balance between vacations and work. One more thing, where do you recommend to look for accommodation in Malta that is both near St. Julian and cheap? I've been reading that Penbroke is inexpensive and close to the institute, but I don't know for sure: how much is the rent in that area? Is close enough to St. Julian that we can go to the institution walking?. I thought Paceville could be fine too, but it seems that is crowded with pubs and bars, etc... so, noise the entire day is a big NO for us