Visa requirements for Maltese citizens

Malta belongs to the European free movement area, so Maltese citizens need no visa anywhere in the Schengen area and can use a national ID card.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, Malta and 93 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

No country asks holders of the Maltese passport for a visa beforehand while its own citizens enter Malta without one.

The reverse holds for 66 countries: holders of the Maltese passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Malta (Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus and 61 others).

13 countries ask holders of the Maltese passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 1 of them has an embassy or consulate on record in Malta.

12 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Malta, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Malta, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Italy (5) and Libya (5).

The United States refused 10% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Malta in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 32 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 164 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the Maltese passport

By continent, the Maltese passport is visa-free in 43 countries in Europe, 29 countries in the Americas, 21 countries in Asia, 19 countries in Africa and 11 countries in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for Maltese citizens are allowed in Georgia (360 days), Antigua and Barbuda (180 days), Armenia (180 days), Costa Rica (180 days), Dominica (180 days) and Mexico (180 days).

Visa on arrival

Maltese citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt and 19 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Maltese citizens enter Azerbaijan, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cuba and 19 others. Australia, Canada, Israel, Ivory Coast, Kenya, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and 4 others ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

How the passport compares

Of the 198 passports in the data, 93 can enter visa-free and 105 need a visa from an embassy or consulate for Malta.