Working from home - moving to Malta HELP

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone can help me?  I've been searching the intrawebs for a while now, and really could not get any direct answers to a simple question i have.  So i will try to post it here and see if anyone can help me?

I am a non-EU citizen who lives in Germany with the EU Blue Card and am engaged to a German citizen.  I work in Germany for a German company, but I work from home, with never ever having to go into the office.

I want to know if I can go to Malta as a "tourist" and work from there?  I would not open a bank account, and would literally be there for a very long vacation i guess...  So as long as i'm not being a burden on Malta, can i stay there legally?

My passport allows me to stay in any EU country for 90 days.  How can i extend this?  My fiance would like to find a job once there and we would get married soon, but how can i go about this legally?  I would have my international/german health insurance as well...

Thanks for any help!  I'm surprised that nobody has been doing this yet?

Suggest less 'Cowboy'ing it and more talking to a specialist.

What you're talking about is very complex, have lots of variables and the cost of getting it wrong will not end well for you.

Excellent.  Thank you for the response.  Would you happen to know the name of a specialist, or profession that would be able to answer these questions to me?  What one person who speaks English would know the laws across all three countries and these implications and costs of getting these variables wrong?

How many times have you gone on vacation, and were doing emails from the beach?  Would that be illegal?  I mean... that is literally my job.  Emails.

The main problem is there is a certain amount of time limit to how long you can be somewhere before being considered resident.

In Malta and as far as I know the rest of europe that is 6 months. 

So if you intent to stay longer than that you have a problem.  You will find lots of guides out there in the digital nomad communities.  There are other concerns like what insurance you can get and if not here then where are you tax resident? You cant be resident no-where that will land you in deep trouble.

So you have to have a base, and you have to be registered there, and you have to comply with their laws for how long to be there as well. 

Malta does partake in the EU blue card thing, you could probably get some expert advise from the blue card network too?

I've used a Maltese based specialist who I wouldn't recommend, so don't have someone to suggest but this is a common topic here.

Ah yes, ok maybe i can be more specific.  I would like to be the resident in Germany, and keep it as i'm still living there (have an apartment, mail, bank...) and that is my base.  But i would like to be in Malta for 90 - 180 days a year as ... i guess a "tourist".  Taxes should not be a problem as the double-taxation rule does not apply between Germany and Malta and i am not registered in Malta.  Im literally there only as a tourist.

If I was to stay, and become resident, of course i would first find a job there, and go via the route that needs to be taken.  But i'm trying to see for at least this time, if this is something legal or if i should forget about it...

then you should be fine, just find out exactly how long the times are to be considered a tourist and how long germany will be ok with you not being there any more for tax purposes

As far as I am aware the maximum time in Malta as a tourist is 3 months and you are not allowed to work. However the simplest way would be to stay 3 months and then pop back to Germany for a visit and then do another 3 months as a tourist!
It sounds as though no one would know you were working so no problem.
As a TCN you would not be allowed to work in Malta anyway unless the job had previously been made available to a suitably qualified Maltese person, with the second option being an EU national, only if there were no suitable applicants can the job be offered to a TCN.

Ray

Hi Ray,

Yes you are right I read that as well.  I will attempt to find some jobs online if possible, as i'm not concerned so much for the money as I am for my health and wellbeing so I will try applying and see if I get any hits somewhere else.

I did also read that a lot of the nationals of my country are working in Malta at hotels and some other seasonal jobs or jobs that no other Maltese people will work, so maybe I can go via that route as well.  It will be hard to go from an 80k/p.a. salary to grunt work but if that is the legal option of me staying there for longer than so be it.