Need information on relocating to Malta from Canada

Hi Vicki,

Welcome to Expat.com

I invite you to consult the Living in Malta guide, it will help you to find some starting information.
Hope it will help you.

Thanks,

Priscilla
Expat.com Team

If you are a Maltese citizen you don't need anything special. Just return it's your right.

Welcome to the forum,
I think your problem should not be a big one. As you are a born maltese person you qualify for residence again. Of course Canada is quite big and it depends on where you live in order to contact the Maltese embassy directly. I would just write an email to [email protected] or call them in Toronto at 416-207-0922 or 416-207-0989 and ask them about repatriation procedures. I know my Maltese friend Anna who lives in Gozo now did the same years ago without any problems.
I wish you good luck for coming back to the local shores

VBA13 wrote:

I was born in Malta, I have been living abroad for many, many years and I am now a citizen of Canada where I still reside. I need information on how to relocate to Malta.
I am 75 years of age, in fair health but finding the winters here hard. Where do I go for information on how to return, I don't seem to be "clicking the right button"

Any pertinent information would be welcome. In English please as my Maltese is pretty rusty.

Thanks.

Vicki

The Malta you come back to will not be anything like the one you left, very built up and very busy.

Hi Volcane;

I'm now a Canadian citizen and have been for about 40 years plus so I don't know how that works any more. Last time I travelled to Malta on my Canadian passport, I was asked how long I would be staying.

Things have changed so much everywhere and though I have four siblings in Malta, we are not close (not my doing) so I have nowhere to get answers from. Malta government hasn't been of help at all but that hasn't changed, I see🥴

I doubt I'd be welcome with open arms, now being a senior and not rich (sadly) and my Maltese is rather rusty, there are times I long to hear someone speak Maltese and give me time to answer them but no one available here and said siblings, I can't even get an email in any language out of them.

Thanks for your reply.

Vicki

Hi Hanselmar;

Thanks for your most helpful reply, I will email the consulate as per your suggestion. I don't think a phone call will get me anywhere. Everyone just keeps you hanging on the phone listening to their long winded instructions including all this covid19 rubbish then they hang up. I know this for a fact, even when I needed tech help for my internet, that's what they did.

Anyway, thanks a bunch and I'll post my result if any.

Vicki.

When you took Canadian citizenship did you have to give up Maltese? Do you still hold  a Maltese passport ?

HI GozoMo;

Yes, I've noticed. While I'm glad for the upgrade Malta got, I'm not sure it was for the best but then what do I know.....right?

I miss the beautiful entrance gate to Valletta, now replaced by  a couple of pieces of rock, hiding a monstrosity that looks like a stack of cardboard boxes with holes in them in a city, no a country replete with history and historical buildings. I guess we must get used to the ugliness now. We have the same problem here though we don't have that many historical buildings and our general buildings are junk and we would not miss them unless they happen to be where we happen to be hanging our hat at the time.

Anyway, I'm still thinking about it and all I managed to find out so far is that my cat will have to be chipped, I'm not happy about that. I will not be chipped and I certainly won't allow her to be. This cat never set foot outside except in her carrier to go to the vet since she was six weeks old. She'll be 7 this month.

Well, I'm sure you weren't expecting this much, my apologies.

Thanks again

Vicki.

Hi Volcane;

I don't think giving up my Maltese citizenship was required. I haven't even renewed my Canadian passport in a couple of years since it expired. The last time I held a Maltese passport was in 1974 when we moved here from England, I had a British passport when I moved to England.

I guess if I move back, it'll have to be on a Canadian Passport. I had wondered if I should apply for my Maltese citizenship but the cost is high and since I never gave it up (that I know of) I don't see why I'd have to pay for what I already own by birth.

Also I don't want to lose my Canadian citizenship either since it's my connection to my children, grandchildren and great grand children (they all took after my side of the family in Malta)

Vicki

I think you just need to renew the Maltese passport.

Call identity Malta and ask them what the best approach is. Would help if you had your old passport numbers.

Hi Volcane;

Still have the passport so should be OK.

Vicki.

Should be easy then.

Re the chip. It really is for the best - and unavoidable- it's really small and can help your cat should it get lost. They never know it's there and has no impact on them. You would not be able to travel without it.

Hi Volcane;

I need to do a lot of thinking about this for my cat, also I was just looking through the housing section WOW!!!!!!! I have my own house with a fair size yard here and space to park my full size Ford F150.

The prices for home sales are going to tank here due to the destruction of our economy so I'll probably won't be able to even afford a cardboard box in Malta. Maybe I should just suck it up about the cold.

I certainly would lose my driving privileges in Malta too, I like driving in traffic but that looks like chaos to me, I remember driving with my brothers, I don't think my nerves can handle it.

Well, I think I should go to bed now, my brain hurts.

Thanks for your help.

Vicki.

Malta is the 4th densest populated country in Europe, there's no space and houses with garges/gardens comes at a huge premium.

Also the winters here are harcher than they appear on paper due to the poor quality housing wrt insulation and humiidty etc.

Hi Volcane;

I do remember how cold Malta can get. I was always cold as a child and I suffered from chillblaines which are extremely painful and itchy. I started getting them again within the month of my visit. When I was in Malta last (about 17 years ago) I was so grateful I brought my down coat with me, about which I debated since obviously I forgot how cold Malta was and damp. I ended up sleeping under it as well.

Then there is the water situation, I'm not sure if this was just my brother's house but I remember standing under the shower praying for some reasonably warm enough water (yes, I did turn the tap on) so I can have a shower and get the hell out of there before I froze to death, a bath was out of the question as it took forever and a day to get maybe four inches of water in it. I stopped attempting a shower every night and ended up a lick and a promise ever three or four days which is horrid. I had originally come for two months mid March to mid May (something like that) I ended up changing my ticket which cost a fortune to return after one month so I could have a hot shower in my nice warm apartment (at the time)

I never expected I'd have a house with a garden and garage, I don't have a garage here but do have room for one, but I was hoping for a more affordable home, nothing like what I have here which is no palace though it's starting to feel like one.

You know? I don't think I'll be better off so maybe I'm cured though I still would love to polish up my Maltese but like I said my family is a bunch of savages and I can't even get them to email me let alone do a chat online (for free) once in a while. I guess I'll just work on that instead.

Thank you so much for all your help, I really appreciate it but the grass is much greener this side of the fence🙂 after all.

Hi

I think renewing your passport would be the best bet and then travel on it on your way to Malta. I am also in kind of your situation

i want to move back to Malta in the next year or so.  to be honest the only reason is family. i know we will have to suffer the heat and the traffic etc...

and i do worry about what property you get for your money,  honestly it is disgraceful how expensive it has become. dont tell me that there are many maltese people or economic migrants who can afford £500,000 for a decent three bed flat!!!!!

I would like to point out we do have running hot water here and heating.

Hi Clay-gee;

I saw those property prices and got immediately cured of my wish to return to Malta. I am a senior (75) living on the pension and a few other bits. My money will turn to nothing Canadian dollar to Euro.  I just realized I'd be lucky to be able to live in a cardboard box under a bridge in Malta (seeing as how they have bridges now) There are many other things that are a trial for me in Malta, not the least of which is my getting chillblains within the first month like I did on my last trip and the water situation, also they too are invaded by mozlems and other undesirables. I understand "refugees" are treated much better at least from what I hear here, maybe I should apply for refugee status.

I don't like weather extremes but prefer warm to cold, my family will never be the reason to return, I could drop dead here or there for all they care and should I return, I won't even tell them. All I get from them when I try to make contact is "we're not a close family" they can have it their way, I give up and I have enough things to attend to without chasing after people. I trust you have better luck with yours.

As for me, I decided to shut up about the cold which I have endured for close to 60 years and hope I will not end up in the eternal heat of hell 🤣 (just kidding)

Vicki

Hi GozoMo;

I do know about Malta having running water we did have it, but not hot and it is slow from my last experience (maybe better now and not everywhere) Heating is only a recent thing and just like when I lived in England, one had heating in one room and froze to death everywhere else, I well remember people knocking on my door asking what I had on the roof, it was a while before I twigged that they were referring to the chimney from my central heating boiler. We were on oil. Here, I've always had a gas furnace except when we lived out in the country and I could only get the propane which I don't like so we opted for wood which I really like but it's a lot of work and expensive unless you have your own wood which we did and are able to cut and split and stack yourself which we did but those days are long gone. 

As for central heating in Malta, probably not everywhere, I doubt the old houses (regular people) have it but who knows, nobody tells me anything.

Thanks for the information and I'm relieved to hear that at least there are some people that are not going through the trials I went through on my last visit.

Vicki.

We use our air con for heating and the water flows fine, with regards the cold Indoors it's only a few weeks we do not normally have heating on after March, outside it's a lot milder then the UK and
Canada.