Malta's building sites have run on third-country labour for a decade and the 2025 policy was written with that labour market in mind. Contractors feel the termination thresholds and the Workforce Application Limit before anyone else, and from 2027 the Building and Construction Authority intends a skill card for everyone entering a site. A crew selected by trade test in Manila, housed properly and kept for the contract is now the compliant way to build — and the cheaper one.
Philippine construction trades are formed on the Gulf's megaprojects and the domestic boom: masons and blockwork crews, formwork carpenters, steel fixers, plasterers and tilers, painters, drywall and fit-out crews, scaffolders and plant operators, with TESDA National Certificates as the paper baseline. Selection in Makati is practical — a mason lays to line and level, a carpenter sets out and strikes formwork, a steel fixer reads a bar schedule — against your method statements and the tolerances of Maltese limestone and concrete work. You or your site manager select, in person or online.
The vacancy requirement is the gate: one advert for at least three weeks, placed within the two months before the complete application — since 1 October 2025 on the Jobsplus portal and EURES. Roles under the Key Employee Initiative, the Specialist Employee Initiative, the EU Blue Card or the Skilled Occupation List need two weeks; health and care roles, change-of-employer applications, regulator-endorsed cases and sportspersons are exempt. The employer records why Maltese, EEA or Swiss applicants were not suitable; an advert that does not meet the rule makes the application ineligible.
Identità's residence-permit fees since 1 August 2025: €600 for a first-time single permit (previously €300), €150 for each year of renewal, €600 for a change of employer, €300 for a change of designation. Roles in the health sector and in the care of elderly or disabled persons pay €150 for everything.
Construction is where the employer tests bite first. The termination thresholds refuse new applications when the termination rate of third-country staff is above 50 % for small, 45 % for medium and 40 % for large employers from 1 July 2026; project-based employment with releases at the end of each job will meet that line unless crews move between your projects rather than out of your employment. The Workforce Application Limit — 100 % growth for a company of 10–49 staff, 50 % for 50–249, 25 % for 250 and more, assessed monthly — sizes how many you can add in a year. Both are arithmetic and both can be planned; we model the round against your Jobsplus record before filing.
The Building and Construction Authority has told the professions it intends to require a construction industry skill card as a condition of entering a site from January 2027, built on a course reaching EQF level 2; in July 2026 the regulations were still being drafted and no requirement was yet in force. For a Filipino crew the practical consequence is to recruit tradesmen whose competence is documented — TESDA certificates, test results, reference letters — so that the card, in whatever form it takes, is a formality on arrival rather than a gap. We track the regulations and will update this page when they are published.
Three to five months from brief to a crew on site; a second tranche for the same project is faster because the accreditation and the advert pattern are in place.
Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024): your company is accredited at the Migrant Workers Office in Rome, which serves Malta from the Philippine Embassy in Italy, the job order is registered with the DMW, and every worker leaves Manila with a verified contract, medical clearance, pre-departure orientation and an Overseas Employment Certificate. Recruitment follows the employer-pays principle: no applicant pays for an interview, a trade test or a place on a shortlist. Your company is the employer from day one; we never employ or lease the workers.
Everything here is subject to Subsidiary Legislation 217.17, the Malta Labour Migration Policy as implemented by Identità and Jobsplus, Maltese employment law and Philippine DMW rules.
Yes — the permit is tied to the employer, not to a site. Keeping crews inside your employment between projects is also what keeps your termination rate under the threshold.
No. The Skills Pass is for tourism and hospitality. Construction workers complete Identità's Pre-Departure Course; the BCA skill card is a separate, planned requirement from 2027.
Not currently. Competence is evidenced in the file and tested by us; the skill card the BCA intends from 2027 will add a course-based requirement for site entry.
Electrical work in Malta requires a licence from the Regulator for Energy and Water Services, with a wireman exam and supervised experience; we recruit Filipino electricians for Malta as electrical assistants or under supervision until licensed. Plumbers and HVAC technicians follow the standard permit.
Up to 50 % growth through third-country recruitment under the Workforce Application Limit — thirty workers on a headcount of sixty a year earlier — subject to the termination threshold and Jobsplus's assessment.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.