How to Get a Work Permit in Malta

I thought I was escaping the terrible economy when I left America for Malta, but it's caught up with me. After investing a lot of time, money and lots of tears on a course to learn to teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Malta, I now find a lack of full-time work in this area.

The good part is that there are several schools that want to hire me. The bad part is that they have very few students now until the summer. And even that's questionable. So the best bet for me-and perhaps for other expats-is to become self-employed. That way, you can take advantage of whatever work there is and not be tied to one place or company. Why? Because if that company pays you by the hour-as most EFL schools do here in Malta-you're in big financial trouble if there is no work for you at the school that hired you.

In other words, if a school hires you and gets the permit for you, you're bound to that school for a year--whether or not there is any work for you. At this stage of the game, the schools in Malta are only paying new teachers on a per teaching-hour basis. If they have hours for you, that's great. But if they don't, you can't go to another school to work. But--you can if you're self-employed as a freelance teacher.

So here's what you need to know to apply for self-employment in Malta, especially if you're from a non-EU member nation. (America, Egypt, Libya, China are examples of non-EU nations.) If you're from an EU nation, you have only a few steps to take to become self-employed-and that's another, easier story.

If you're a non-EU member and want to become self-employed in Malta, you must get a permit. It's almost the same process you would go through if you wanted to be hired by a company; the only difference is that if the company wants to hire you exclusively, the company fills out the form for you and submits it. It's the same form (and attachments) whether you're applying for self-employment or a regular work permit. And either process takes three months. You get the permit from the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) in Malta.

It all starts with the ETC.

1. Go to their website http://www.etc.gov.mt/ and then click on Work Permits.

2. Then when you get there, scroll down and click on Third Country Nationals Issue Application--which is a template you download. And let me tell you something--this is the first time I've been considered a third-country national--and it doesn't feel too good. The fun thing about this form is that no one tells you it's the same form you use for both self-employment and regular work permits. So after you panic when you don't find one for self-employment and call back the ETC office a couple of times, finally you find out that you use the same form for both types of permits--self-employment and work.

3. Next, you download two more templates you'll need to fill out: Position Description and CV Template. These take a lot of time to fill out but they're pretty self-explanatory. But--remember this: there's nothing there that says self-employment. It's actually the form a company (or school) fills out for you when you apply for a regular work permit. So you just have to adapt it to your own self-employment needs. (Sort of makes you wonder how many people apply for self-employment and how many succeed in getting it--if the ETC people don't even have a separate form for it.)

4. Be careful to fill in every blank-or gap as they call it in Malta. Some of the items may not apply to you because they would ordinarily be filled out by the employer hiring you. However, if you have a question, call the ETC and ask someone there.

The good thing about this process is that the ETC staff was quite helpful over the phone--+356-2220-1580 or 1588. So even though the bad economy has followed me to Malta, the bad manners of American governmental workers have not.

Reference: The author's own website at An-American-in Malta.com

Part 2. Going in Person to the ETC office.