Relocation

You would now be classed as a third country national (TCN) as the UK has now left the EU, so it may be harder for you to relocate here. I wish you luck in your future plans.

Welcome to the Forum, if you do a search on here you will find some answers to your questions, but as mentioned above it will not be as easy now as it previously was.

The company will be providing all relevant visa’s required and relocation costs. So we are not worried about that side of things.
It’s the more every day stuff we would like some information about.

Many thanks

Its advisable to rent somewhere before purchasing a property in case you do not like living here and it also allows you to find the area which
really suits your needs, Sliema is expensive to rent or purchase.
At the moment we are in lockdown so jobwise there are not so many
vacancies especially in the hospitality section, wages tend to be lower here then the Uk.  With regards to living costs we have one bill which covers electricity and water, we do not have council tax and gas is
bottled.

You definitely can’t get UK Sky legally in Malta but TSN does English Premiership football which you can get via the internet suppliers, eg Go or Melita, if it’s football you’re interested in.

Hi... as we are not aware of your life style in UK its difficult to tell if you would like it here in Malta or not.. but taking a very general perspective...i have tried to list few pros and cons..

Pros..
1) the weather here is the big plus ..but in summers it can get really hot but on the bright side you have sun through out the year so definitely it will be a much better than UK gloomy cold weather..
2) small island benefits...the positive point is everything is very accessible and commuting takes less time...
3) there are good people but very very few.. the older generation is more kinder.
4) Out side food is good and cheaper as compared to other eu countries.. but honestly i didnt like it myself..but that is the general opinion.. and also as i am a vegetarian so cant say much about food. for me the food is not good..

Cons...
1) Will start with island being small.. there is big negative side of it.. after sometime you start feeling it..
even the side walks are so narrow that walking also is very difficult in most parts of the island..
there is no place for cycling ..its very dangerous...so you are forced to take car ..everyone has car and the roads are so narrow so sometimes you are badly stuck in traffic..
2) Amazon online service is not available.. if its available its expensive as you need to pay for delivery.
3) the Maltese people are in general very money greedy and this was told to me by a Maltese person only , then i had the worst of experience with Insurance company who fleeced out money from us as soon as they knew we are third country national . Even worse are Private schools who charge you Euro 200 extra per term just because you dont hold a European passport.. what a discrimination at school level. i really wanted to ask the school how my kid is utilising extra resources of the school that they are charging such a huge amount extra on top of high fees.
4) The property rentals are over rated and the landlords will try to literally fleece money out of you... you need to be very careful and have everything written in rental agreement.
5) the prices in stores vary a lot and you really need to find where you can find stuff with reasonable price.. how so ever you frequent a shop they always charge you higher just because you are  a foreigner and they think they can loot you. They care a damn about customer relations..
6) this is a English speaking country and everyone knows English.. English is also the official language besides Maltese.. but still the Maltese people will speak in Maltese in your presence and make you feel stupid.. this by all standards is not acceptable but very common in offices..
7) i have definitely felt racism to certain degree... Being Indian i have felt it a lot.. at office other Maltese staff leave before office time but somehow i was expected to stay longer...i never understood this..
8) there is not much to do for kids.. except swimming and football...parks are very tiny and not very well maintained.. some parks are so small that you dont even understand why they are there in the first place..
9) Fruits and vegi are expensive .. as compared to France even the seasonal ones...( i have lived there so i compare with France..) and you dont even get good quality most of the time.. if quality is good its really expensive.
10) you need to buy drinking water.. the kitchen tap water is portable they say but the entire country buys drinking water or have RO installed. But if you are renting the landlord will not bother to install RO you need to buy..
11) if you dont have car.. u need to depend on Public transport - bus.. the waiting time for bus is really long and never ever on time... its a night mare..

I dont see why anyone should come here unless you dont have any other option and you are coming here just for the sun...

GozoMo wrote:

Its advisable to rent somewhere before purchasing a property in case you do not like living here and it also allows you to find the area which
really suits your needs, Sliema is expensive to rent or purchase.

Exactly, living in a country is completely different to holidaying in a country.

You can order from Amazon and delivery is not always expensive.
With regards to fresh local vegetables you can buy good quality at a good price from the trucks which come round.  I would not take too much notice of such a negative post.

I agree with Gozo Mo, don't take to much notice of the negative points ( no where is perfect ), some points   
Traffic jams are world wide in rush hours.
Try Amazon Germany, for goods delivered.
Food stores , we have Lidl stores with competitive  prices.
Fruit & veg  from farm shops or Van's very fresh & ripe & cheap.
I've lived here for 4 years now, & found the Maltese  people to always talk to you in English when they know you don't speak maltese.
There is a bus app which tells you what bus & whether next 1 will arrive at any bus stop in Malta & gozo.
So, it's not all bad, & there are a lot worse places to live .😊

I have mentioned what i have experienced and yes.. there are much worse places to live but there are many many better places to live as well, so all depends on the options available to us at a given particular time.. if you have no option then we adjust and live, but that doesnt mean we can ignore the negatives or be blind to them..
The fact that someone in asking for opinion about a place is that they have a choice to be made.. i did my bit by giving my hands on experience. At least they will know beforehand and be prepared to face it...but we should not mislead people by saying all is good and the negatives are just minuscule and can be ignored specially when you are coming with kids.. for retired people the story is very different.
All the best ...

davold wrote:

You definitely can’t get UK Sky legally in Malta but TSN does English Premiership football which you can get via the internet suppliers, eg Go or Melita, if it’s football you’re interested in.

There are ways.

Thank you for all of the  feedback, all very much appreciated. Lots of weighing up to do 😀 x