Licensed recruitment of skilled Filipino professionals for Maltese employers. Your company is the direct employer — we run selection in Manila, the Maltese permit process and the Philippine exit formalities end to end. From 1 worker.
Malta's Single Permit is one decision for work and residence, and the 2025–2026 Labour Migration Policy rewrote how an employer gets there: a three-week Jobsplus/EURES advert, a €600 fee, termination thresholds and workforce limits, and a mandatory Pre-Departure Course since 1 March 2026. The Specialist Employee Initiative (€30,000, 15 working days) and the Key Employee Initiative (€45,000, 5 working days) are the fast lane for ISCO 1–3 roles; health and care are exempt from the advert at €150 fees. These guides cover the process, the fast track, the policy timeline, the course and the Skills Pass, pay, the Philippine side through MWO Rome, and the four sectors that hire Filipinos in Malta.
Every Maltese project runs on the same backbone: you define the roles, headcount and start date; our own DMW-licensed agency in Manila, Prime Search, sources and trade-tests candidates; you approve the shortlist (on-site or online); and we manage the Maltese permit process under your power of attorney while the Philippine side — contract verification, medical, pre-departure orientation and the Overseas Employment Certificate — runs in parallel. The employment contract is signed and verified before departure; your new employee lands, completes local onboarding and clocks in.
The Maltese specifics below are the part that makes Malta different from every other market we serve.
Single Permit — work and residence in one decision (Identità, Expatriates Unit; Jobsplus on the labour-market side); fast track for ISCO 1–3 roles via the Specialist Employee Initiative (€30,000, 15 working days) and the Key Employee Initiative (€45,000, 5 working days). Malta issues one Single Permit for work and residence through Identità, with Jobsplus checking the labour market. The 2025–2026 Labour Migration Policy set the terms: one advert for at least three weeks on Jobsplus and EURES within the two months before filing (two weeks for KEI, SEI, Blue Card and Skilled Occupation List roles; none for health and care), a €600 permit fee (€150 in care), employer termination thresholds and workforce limits, and — for every first-time applicant since 1 March 2026 — Identità's Pre-Departure Course, with the Skills Pass on top in tourism and hospitality. Workers still abroad receive an Approval in Principle and enter on a national visa issued through the Malta Visa Application Centre in the Philippines. Specialists in ISCO groups 1–3 at €30,000 or more use the Specialist Employee Initiative, decided in 15 working days. Malta hosts about 16,000 Filipinos and English is an official language.
Labour-market test: Vacancy requirement since 1 August 2025 (Jobsplus/EURES channel since 1 October 2025): one advert for at least three weeks within the two months before a complete application; two weeks for KEI, SEI, EU Blue Card and Skilled Occupation List roles; fully exempt: health-sector and elderly/disability-care roles, change-of-employer applications, regulator-endorsed cases, sportspersons. Reasons for rejecting Maltese, EEA or Swiss applicants are assessed by Jobsplus.
Shortage occupations: The Revised Skilled Occupation List (annex to the Jobsplus implementation document, July 2025 — about 230 ISCO-08 codes in major groups 1–3 and health/personal-care roles in group 5; no operative or trade codes) earns the two-week advert and three-year renewals; welders, CNC operators, cooks and drivers are not on it and stay on the standard route. Hospitality, care, construction and manufacturing are the channels for Filipino workers.
Deploying a Filipino worker abroad is regulated by the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW). The Migrant Workers Office in Rome serves Malta from the Philippine Embassy in Italy: employer accreditation and contract verification run there, the job order is registered with the DMW, and the worker leaves Manila with an Overseas Employment Certificate. The verified contract, together with the job order approved by the DMW, allows the worker to obtain the Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) — the exit clearance without which no Filipino worker can legally leave for a job abroad. Pre-employment orientation, medical examination at a DOH-accredited medical clinic authorised to examine overseas Filipino workers and pre-departure orientation complete the sequence. Because we operate the licensed agency ourselves, this runs in parallel with the Maltese permit rather than after it.
Typical gate-to-gate time for Malta is 3–5 months (2–3 months under SEI/KEI) from signed engagement to the first arrival, driven mainly by the Maltese permit and the embassy appointment in Manila. Sourcing and trade testing usually take two to four weeks and are not on the critical path. We give you a written timeline for your specific role before you commit.
Sectors where Maltese employers most often hire Filipino workers through us:
Our contractual partner is the employer, and it is the employer we invoice for the service. You receive an individual offer for Malta covering sourcing, trade testing, documentation, the permit process and arrival support — there is no price list, because volumes, roles and the Maltese route differ from project to project. Direct employment means the worker's wage is paid by you under your Maltese contract; there is no intermediary employer.
A Maltese employer briefs us on roles and headcount. Within two to four weeks we present trade-tested candidates from Manila with video assessments; the employer interviews online and approves. We file the single permit — work and residence in one decision under power of attorney while Prime Search completes the DMW documentation. The employment contracts are signed and MWO-verified before departure; on arrival the workers complete registration and local onboarding and start on the floor — with our team reachable for the first months of integration. Whether the project is one specialist or a full shift, the mechanics are identical.
No. The Specialist Employee Initiative has run since January 2024; the €30,000 line and the two-week advert date from August 2025. It applies to ISCO 1–3 roles — technicians, supervisors, nurses, managers — not to operatives, who use the standard Single Permit.
Identità's mandatory online course for first-time Single Permit applicants: two modules, a 20-minute live interview in English, €250, 42 days to complete; certificates verified since 1 March 2026. We start it on the day of selection.
The Institute of Tourism Studies' accreditation for tourism and hospitality staff, obligatory for third-country nationals since 2024 (€230); cleaners, kitchen porters, accounts, marketing, HR and stores roles are excluded since 5 January 2026.
Because new applications are refused when the termination rate of your third-country staff exceeds 50 % (small), 45 % (medium) or 40 % (large employers) from 1 July 2026, and annual growth through third-country hires is capped by company size. A tested, well-housed Filipino crew that stays is the licence to recruit the next one.
The easiest route in the country: health and care roles are exempt from the vacancy advert and pay €150 fees; the DMW names nurses and care workers as the Filipino professions in demand in Malta.
English is an official language of Malta and the language of Philippine schooling; the Pre-Departure Course interview is held in English.