🇲🇹 Malta Visa from Dubai

Planning a trip to Malta from Dubai or anywhere in the UAE? Visa Doctor makes your Malta Schengen visa application simple, fast and stress-free. Our visa consultants in Dubai handle every step, from document preparation and notarisation through appointment scheduling to submission at the visa application centre. Malta is one of the easier European short breaks from the Gulf: English-speaking, a short flight, and Valletta, Mdina, the megalithic temples, the Blue Lagoon on Comino and the beaches of Gozo fit into four or five nights. Whether you travel for tourism, business, study or family, we will guide you through the whole Malta visa process from the UAE.

What is a Malta Schengen Visa?

A Malta Schengen visa allows UAE residents to enter Malta and travel freely across all 29 Schengen Area member countries. It is required for non-GCC nationals residing in the UAE visiting for tourism, business or any short stay. UAE passport holders are exempt and travel visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

Malta is unusual here in one respect that shapes the rest of this page: it is the only Schengen country in the Emirates with two posts that both decide visas, an embassy in Abu Dhabi and a consulate general in Dubai. Their published outcomes differ more sharply than any other pair in the UAE dataset, and understanding why is the most useful thing here.

Malta Visa Key Details

• 📌 Visa type: Schengen short-stay visa (Type C)
• 📌 Maximum stay: up to 90 days within any 180-day period
• 📌 Validity: single, double or multiple entry
• 📌 Deciding missions: Embassy of Malta in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General in Dubai
• 📌 Application centre: VFS Global in Dubai or Abu Dhabi
• 📌 Malta visa fee: EUR 90 adults, EUR 45 children aged 6 to 12, free under 6, EUR 35 under facilitation agreements, EUR 67.50 for Cabo Verde nationals
• 📌 VFS service fee: AED 120 per applicant
• 📌 Photograph: ICAO standard JPEG file, 240×320 pixels minimum, 120 KB maximum, 300 DPI, under six months old
• 📌 Travel insurance: mandatory, minimum EUR 30,000 medical cover
• 📌 Processing time: 15 calendar days, extendable to 45

Be careful with the dirham amount. The VFS one-pager publishes a fixed table of AED 360 for an adult and AED 180 for a child, converting at exactly 4.00 dirhams to the euro, a rate that has not held for years. Malta’s own pages say the fee is settled in dirhams at the rate on the appointment date, and other missions price the identical EUR 90 fee at AED 384 to 395.

Types of Malta Visas Available from the UAE

Tourist visa: for UAE residents visiting Valletta, Mdina, Comino or Gozo. Valid for up to 90 days per 180-day period, and a genuine Malta short break is a strong application.

Business visa: for meetings, conferences and trade events, supported by an invitation from the Maltese host and a notarised declaration of proof form.

Family or friends visit: supported by an invitation from your host and a notarised declaration form, a heavier notarisation burden than most Schengen posts here impose.

Study visit: short English language courses fall under the Schengen short-stay visa, backed by enrolment confirmation from the school. Longer programmes need a national visa.

Airport transit visa: required for certain nationalities transiting without entering the Schengen Area. One narrow rule is clear: only legal residents of the UAE may apply for one at the Dubai centre.

National long-stay visa (Type D): for work, study or residence. These do not go to the UAE missions at all; Identita in Malta handles them.

Where UAE Residents Apply for a Malta Visa

Applications go through VFS Global, not the missions themselves, at the centres in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The Embassy of Malta sits in Abu Dhabi at Villa 31, Almaqtaa Area, Bain Aljisreen, the Consulate General in Dubai at The Fairmont, Office 707, Sheikh Zayed Road. Both decide short-stay Schengen visas.

On jurisdiction, Malta’s published position is genuinely confusing and we would rather say so than paraphrase it into false clarity. The VFS one-pager says the Dubai consulate issues visas only in its territory of operation, then lists that territory as Dubai and the northern emirates while including Abu Dhabi and Al Ain in the same parenthesis. The consulate’s own services page describes its jurisdiction as the United Arab Emirates. That VFS sentence appears to predate the 2021 opening of the Abu Dhabi embassy. In practice both centres accept residents of any emirate.

The two posts publish startlingly different outcomes. On the European Commission’s 2025 figures, Dubai received 6,915 applications, issued 3,654 and refused 3,228, a refusal rate of 46.9%. Abu Dhabi received 164, issued 155 and refused 7, a rate of 4.3%. Same country, same rules, same year, ten times the failure rate at one post.

The likely explanation is the caseload rather than the officers. Abu Dhabi handles a small business and repeat-traveller pool and issued 95% of its visas as multiple entry; Dubai absorbs the speculative volume and issued only about half as multiple entry. Malta is a popular choice for applicants shopping for the easiest-looking Schengen state, and Dubai is where that lands.

That does not mean you should apply in Abu Dhabi for a better rate: you do not change your file by changing the counter. It means Malta’s headline refusal figure reflects many weak applications, and a well-documented Malta trip is in far better shape than 46.9% suggests.

One practical point: Malta’s pages state that communication with the visa section is strictly in writing. No phone call resolves a problem; anything you need answered goes by email.

Malta Visa Requirements from Dubai

These documents are generally required for a Malta tourist or short-stay Schengen visa application from the UAE:

• ✅ Completed and signed Schengen visa application form
• ✅ Valid passport, issued within the last ten years, valid three months beyond your departure from the Schengen Area, with two blank pages
• ✅ ICAO-standard photograph as a JPEG file, 240×320 pixels minimum, 120 KB maximum, 300 DPI, under six months old
• ✅ Valid UAE residence permit for expatriate applicants
• ✅ Emirates ID copy
• ✅ Personal bank statements for the last three to six months
• ✅ NOC or employment letter from your employer or sponsor
• ✅ Travel medical insurance across the Schengen Area, minimum EUR 30,000 cover
• ✅ Confirmed return flight booking
• ✅ Hotel reservations or proof of accommodation for the whole stay
• ✅ A day-by-day itinerary showing Malta as the main destination
• ✅ Proof of civil status, such as a marriage or birth certificate

Additional Documents for Specific Categories

• ✅ Children under 18: both parents present to sign, or a Parents Consent Form certified by a Commissioner of Oaths; an ordinary signed letter is not enough
• ✅ Business travellers: invitation from the Maltese host plus a notarised declaration of proof form
• ✅ Family visits: invitation from your host plus a notarised declaration form
• ✅ Employed: three months of salary slips, employment contract and leave approval
• ✅ Self-employed: trade licence, company bank statements and registration documents
• ✅ Students: enrolment letter and NOC from your UAE institution
• ✅ Retired applicants: pension statements or other proof of income

The notarisation steps are the ones families discover too late. A family arriving with one parent and an ordinary letter is turned away at the counter.

How to Get a Malta Schengen Tourist Visa from Dubai (Step-by-Step)

Malta rewards preparation more than most Schengen files. This is how we run it.

Malta Visa Processing Time from the UAE

Standard processing is 15 calendar days, extendable to 45 where further scrutiny is required. Applications are accepted no earlier than six months and no later than fifteen calendar days before travel. Neither post publishes an appointment backlog.

One caution on older sources. A VFS Malta checklist dated 22 March 2022 is still linked from the live one-pager and says processing normally takes fourteen days. It is four years old and slightly wrong: plan against the fifteen to forty-five day range. We advise applying four to six weeks before travel, earlier for summer and Christmas.

On outcomes, the 2025 split between the two Maltese posts was 46.9% refusals in Dubai against 4.3% in Abu Dhabi, on a UAE-wide average of 23.9%. Read that as a statement about the caseload rather than about your chances: a documented trip with the notarisations in order, the correct photograph file and an honest itinerary is a materially stronger application than the headline figure implies.

Why Choose Visa Doctor for Your Malta Visa?

• ⭐ Notarisations handled in advance: parental consent certified by a Commissioner of Oaths, and the declaration forms for business and family visits.
• ⭐ The photograph in the right format: Malta specifies a JPEG file with exact size and resolution limits, and applicants who bring only prints are stuck.
• ⭐ An honest read on your itinerary: we tell you if the trip is really about Italy or Spain before you pay a fee here.
• ⭐ Fast appointment access: we work VFS bookings daily, peak periods included.
• ⭐ A written-only visa section: Malta answers in writing only, and we manage that correspondence.
• ⭐ Transparent pricing: the EUR 90 consular fee at the current rate, the AED 120 VFS service fee, insurance and our agency charge.

Frequently Asked Questions, Malta Visa from Dubai