Third-country nationals who want to study English in Malta will now need a visa before they arrive here if they intend to stay in the country for more than three months.
Malta’s English Language Teaching (ELT) industry was informed of planned changes in Identità’s visa policy towards non-EU nationals on Friday, with many in the sector expressing concern the new rules will harm the industry.
As of March 1, any student planning to stay for more than three months must have a student visa before they land in Malta, Identità told English schools.
Until now, students coming from non-EU, but visa-exempt countries could stay in Malta for a maximum of 90 days and then apply for a student visa if they wished to stay longer.
“It is no longer acceptable for students who intend to stay here for six months to enter the country without a visa,” an Identità spokesperson said.
Ray Spiteri, who owns a language school in Swieqi, said the changes risk damaging the industry.
At the moment students can decide to come here and book long courses in Malta at the last minute, but now that will no longer be the case, Spiteri said.
“These changes can kill the last-minute market and risk stopping anyone who wants to extend their course from doing so,” the school owner said.
He also said that the short notice given before the change risks many of the school bookings planned for March.
Other industry insiders shared the same sentiment.
“We have students coming in March, and they have a course booked for six months. Will they be able to come here without a visa,” one asked.
It’s also unclear what the requirements for a visa will be, he added.
“Will students need a rental contract and will that contract need to be registered with the Housing Authority?” he asked.
English language schools were briefed on the changes by Identità officials yesterday morning.
Under the new rules schools will apply for student visas, not students, to prevent the use of forged acceptance letters claiming to be from schools. Such a system already exists for higher education institutes in Malta.
Each school will have three administrators who will have the authority to book appointments on behalf of students.
A student will then have to go to a visa application centre in their country and submit the required documents along with their passport, which will then be sent to Identità offices.
Students will then get their passport back in four to five weeks, the Identità official said. Requirements for visas for every country will also be uniform.
Identità officials also told schools that the agency was aware of “abuses” where students asked to extend their stay a few days before their 90 days expired.
Some within the industry hailed the changes, saying that the uniform visas will reduce burdensome bureaucratic processes for their schools.
But Spiteri said Malta risks losing its competitive edge.
“Why should a student come to Malta if they can go to Ireland or even the UK without any of these issues?” the school owner asked.
Much of Malta’s ELT industry relies on non-EU national students particularly during the winter months when adolescent groups of European students are in school.
Because of the greater distances between their country and Malta, non-EU adult students tend to book courses for a longer period when compared to EU students.
Japan, Korea, Colombia and Brazil are among the nationalities that often travel to Malta for English courses.