Maltese Citizenship by Descent - How long have you been waiting?

Going to Dublin is an excellent suggestion that I might follow up. Was January the earliest they had an appointment? Good luck with the session.

Yes they were quite busy at the moment and mid January was earliest appointment. Best wishes with yours!

I registered my birth in Malta and took less than a week

Had an appointment quite a while ago, but still haven't heard anything, despite others on here having applied and got it quicker than myself.  Was wondering if it could be a problem with my paperwork, or just a case that the London office was moving slower than others...

Was it an appointment at the High Commission in London? And was it for citizenship by descent? I think it's always quicker in Malta - I know in London they're really busy.

Marlene Lindner wrote:

Please let me know if that works with the Maltese passport agency.  I moved to Germany  a few months before the pandemic hit so I know no one that fit the recommender  here.

Yes it worked, my passport is now at the embassy in Dublin ready for collection.

Congratulations! I have an appointment in Dublin in January. How long did it take to process?

My birth registration took place the week before last, so less than two weeks.

Thank you for the update.  I hope it works for me

Did you go to Dublin for application for passport? How long after did it take for it to be ready?

Ok, I did my citizenship application, act of birth and passport application all at the same appointment in January 2020.

Things were slightly delayed by my having to take he Public Registry to court, but once that was out the way it took less than two weeks.

Eddie B-A wrote:

Ok, I did my citizenship application, act of birth and passport application all at the same appointment in January 2020.

Things were slightly delayed by my having to take he Public Registry to court, but once that was out the way it took less than two weeks.

what a nightmare! glad you have it sorted now

Is there anyone in this group who has obtained citizenship by marriage? My husband just applied with a form B and I wanted to know which is the average resolution time.

Julieta, that depends on where you are, how long you’ve been married and perhaps how he obtained his citizenship. Can you tell us more?

My daughter an I have recently obtained our citizenship by descent. We’ve been married for 22 years, we live in Argentina and applied for it in Washington as there is no embassy in our country.

Then yes, it is possible, but there are some pieces missing from Form B - specifically the Oath - that you will need to obtain from the embassy before applying.

You’ll be best off asking them directly. If you have citizenship, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t get it too. There’ll be a family file at the Citizenship Unit.

Segunaa wrote:

Was it an appointment at the High Commission in London? And was it for citizenship by descent? I think it's always quicker in Malta - I know in London they're really busy.

Yes it was for descent, in London. It seems that people have received a response about if their application was successful much quicker in other countries' embassies.

Does anyone have an update on London? Are they still processing passport applications?

Have an appointment book next month in Dublin, with flights booked. Ryanair cancelled my flights on 2 occasions and I'm getting a bit worried!

Allegedly still processing 2020 applications, both for citizenship and for passports. I have a hunch they’re not doing anything at all.

As you know Dublin and Brussels are both options if you’re willing to travel.

Just submitted my passport application at Dublin Embassy. Unfortunately poor Chris was by himself as Owen resigned last week. Chris did a great job processing the application despite some setbacks.

If anyone has an appointment in Dublin, I would recommend confirming the appointment before travelling.

I will update when I receive my passport.

The cost was €95, which includes postage back to England.

Segunaa wrote:

Just submitted my passport application at Dublin Embassy. Unfortunately poor Chris was by himself as Owen resigned last week. Chris did a great job processing the application despite some setbacks.

If anyone has an appointment in Dublin, I would recommend confirming the appointment before travelling.

I will update when I receive my passport.

The cost was €95, which includes postage back to England.

Graham Owens was the consular officer at the embassy for 15 years. He did a great job with my Citizenship and Passport applications, paid  great attention to detail to the extent that he mailed me to let me know he'd resigned long after I had any further need of his services

We submitted application for citizenship through descent in London in August 2021 and have already had confirmation of citizenship so they are getting through applications pretty quickly in my experience. Will see how long it takes to get another appointment for registration of life events/passport application however!

Best wishes. How long did you wait for appointment at high commission in London?

It was almost exactly a year between my initial contact and the appointment coming through but the High Commission had effectively been closed for the 5 months before that and not doing any appointments at all. I think the various lockdowns must have had a really bad effect on how quickly they can see people. They honestly couldn't have been more helpful when we finally did go though. Good luck!

Just received my passport from Dublin. It seems all my biometrics and data was sent to Malta electronically as they made my passport the same day as appointment. Would highly recommend the Dublin route!

I did apply in 2020 for a citizenship by naturalization and had been rejected. I am living here for 13th year already. All 13 years paying tax and with residency card.
Finally I was told by my contacts that I have to live here  minimum for 15 years so will try again in 2 year.

This particular thread is for those who've applied for citizenship by descent not naturalisation.

Thanks. Got it

Has anyone had this situation:

Grandparents born in Malta - Came to the US and got US citizenship. - Now both deceased

Mother is 100% Maltese but born in US - She would like to now apply for citizenship

Once she does, then I can. We already received all original certified birth certs, marriage etc. from Malta

My mom is not able to travel to Malta to would have to apply at the consulate in San Francisco California and literally no one is there, no one responds to emails or phone calls. Has anyone had any luck with them? My mom is getting older and if she doesn't get this it will break the chain and then we will never get it

My advice would be to contact the embassy in Washington.

I live in Argentina and, as there is no embassy here, I had applied for my citizenship in Washington sending them my certificates by post. They were very helpful, answered my emails promptly. Good luck!

Hello. My name is Mathias. I'm German. In my family history my x-times great grandfather was born in Malta. This is what the church records says. Because of his darker skin his name in Germany was "Mohr" which is a synonym for "black people". He is also named "aethiopis". I just know his christian name but do not know his originally Maltese name. Do I have any chance to get Maltese citizenship without his original name just with the official German church record? Or any other idea how to find him? We are talking about the years 1644-1675. He was born at Malta around 1644. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks Mathias   

@Mathias Mohr

You need to prove two generations of direct ancestors born in Malta. You will need baptism and marriage certificates for each generation in your line of ascent from the church authorities in Malta proving that they were born in Malta, plus subsequent church and  state certificates in order to prove your descent.

Theoretically it is possible, I know of claimants going back for six generations. However the process is very strict, citizenship isn't given out lightly.

If you really want to embark on this you are looking at a mountain of paperwork and probably several years before a decision is given.

Most people on this forum have gone back maybe only three generations or so and that in itself can be hard work.

Good luck to you if you decide to pursue this, but there's no point in even approaching the Maltese authorities until you have every original certificate in place.

As Eddie has said, you have to get all the certificates. In my case, I had to get my great great GM and also her parents birth and marriage certificates. I was lucky my father kept family’s documents and on one of these appeared the Place were she was born. Luckily her parents had also been baptized and married in the same church.

But you need to have at least his real name. As you have to get the Maltese certificates…

Hello Eddie and Julieta.

Thank you for your quick response.

So I need my ancestor's maiden name. That won't be easy, since he was baptized a second time here in Germany with a German name. I have his death entry from the church register. There the pastor wrote that he was a native of the island of Malta. I have another idea where I could find his name .

Do you know any genealogists from Malta which you might recommend?

Who do I need or can I contact to obtain certified transcripts or copies of my ancestor's birth and marriage records?

Do the entries from the church registers still have to be translated into English here in Germany, or is a certified copy of the entry sufficient?

Are death records also required?

Do I need to have a passport.

Sorry for the many questions

Thanks so much.

@Mathias Mohr You need to know your ancestor's precise name and exactly where in Malta he was born, on top of that you then need to do the same for his parents.

Once you have tracked down the record of his baptism, his parents marriage and their baptisms you can then approach the parish office in question for certificates.

You will need to provide them with the parish register reference, page number etc.

I have no reccomendations for genealogists in Malta as I've always done my own research.

https://en.geneanum.com/malta.html is an incomplete index of births, marriages and some burials in Malta, but if you don't know your ancestors actual name and where he was born it won't be much use.

Another factor is are your parents/ grandparents still alive ?, if so they will need to apply for citizenship before you can.

In addition on Eddie’s post, I’d like to point out that if any of your ancestors died after 2010 without claiming for Maltese citizenship, the bound is broken and you could not apply for it.

eg: mi father died in 2006. There was no possibility at that time for him to ask for the Maltese Citizenship as the new regulations dates from 2007.  And they gave 3 years of tolerance. If my father had died in 2011 without even knowing about this possibility, I couldn’t have claimed for the citizenship.

I am not sure if I made myself clear. Sorry, english is not my mother tongue.

Hello. My name is Mathias. I'm German. In my family history my x-times great grandfather was born in Malta. This is what the church records says. Because of his darker skin his name in Germany was "Mohr" which is a synonym for "black people". He is also named "aethiopis". I just know his christian name but do not know his originally Maltese name. Do I have any chance to get Maltese citizenship without his original name just with the official German church record? Or any other idea how to find him? We are talking about the years 1644-1675. He was born at Malta around 1644. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks Mathias 
-@Mathias Mohr

Here in Malta churches have archives of people being born and baptized. However, this country has 365 churches and you have to know where and when your ancestor was born exactly. Of course the German name Mohr is not popular in Malta. Therefore your suggestion he was having another name here in Malta appears to be right. However, your search goes back 11 generations. After such a long time it is extremely difficult to get precise results. I recently did research with ancestry.com and their information appears to be reliable for about 7 generations. You can do the same and in case any of your matches have a   Maltese or Italian surname you have a slight chance to get more information about your Maltese ancestor. www.ancestry.com have an office in Ireland and are popular in the USA. If there a names like Buttegieg or Azzopardi on the list of your remote relatives you have at least some evidence of your Maltese ancestry. This does not mean you qualify for Maltese citizenship, but residence is possible due to the fact Malta belongs to the EU. Good luck 

Eddie has once again given excellent advice.

I went back eight generations, to a first birth around 1770, and could have gone back further. I then tracked generations and documents across three countries. Malta is actually pretty lenient on documentation compared with other states - for example international certificates didn't require apostillation - although that was two years ago.

You'll need to provide an unbroken chain. Does the death certificate list all of his names? His father's name? That might give you a way into searching on the https://en.geneanum.com/malta.html link that Eddie shared.

If you do succeed in finding a genuine birth record (and his parents' birth and marriage  records), you might have a way to apply. I can recommend someone to collect the certificates in Malta, but she won't do the research.

I don't know if this firm is still operational http://genealogyservicesmalta.com