Guide series
Study Destinations
Study in Malta from Bangladesh: MQF levels, visa and costs
MQF level 5. That single line decides whether a Maltese course can carry a study residence permit at all — and it settles more than anything else printed on the brochure.
MQF level 5. That is the line a Maltese course either sits above or below, and it settles more than anything else printed on the brochure.
Malta numbers every qualification on its national framework. MQF 6 is a bachelor’s degree, MQF 7 a master’s, MQF 5 the higher-diploma band beneath them. Identità, which runs both the visa and the residence permit, grants one only for a full-time course at MQF level 5 or above at a registered institution. Its Central Visa Unit guidelines spell out what happens below that line: a student at MQF 4 or under “must apply for one consecutive year of visas before applying for the study Permit”. At MQF 5 and above, on a course longer than six months, you apply for the permit once you have landed.
So two Dhaka counters can quote comparable totals for what sounds like the same qualification, and only one puts you on the permit track in your first month. The MQF level is the first question, ahead of the price.
The fee the law sets, and the fee the counter takes. Identità’s applicable-fees page says applicants pay “in accordance with Fee Ordinance L.N.287 of 2020”. That legal notice carries one figure for a long-stay study visa: €70. The checklist Identità publishes for student applications, version 2.1 of August 2025, prices the same application at €100 or €150 depending on how fast you want the appointment, and the Bangladesh one-pager charges exactly those two amounts. No amending legal notice could be found. Treat the checklist figure as the payable one, expect no refund at either number, and note that a refusal goes to the Immigration Appeals Board within 15 days or nowhere.
Two permissions, and only one of them happens in Dhaka
Malta splits permission to study into two documents from two units of the same agency, and students who treat it as one process lose weeks.
The first is the National Visa, Long-Stay (type D), study category. It gets you onto the plane, and is decided by the Central Visa Unit inside Identità in Malta, not by an embassy anywhere in this region. Identità’s own list of Visa Extended Service branches includes the Dhaka centre in Banani, and the Bangladesh services one-pager confirms student applications are filed there and go straight to that unit. Budget six to eight weeks minimum, and treat six as optimistic.
One threshold is worth checking if your course is short. Identità’s general visa policy puts the long-stay line at more than 90 days; its student guidelines and study FAQ put it at 105. A course between those two lengths deserves a direct question to the Central Visa Unit.
The second document is the study residence permit, the e-Residence card. You apply online at the Expatriates Unit portal, then submit in person while you are in Malta, within three months of arrival. It costs €50. Your passport must have at least eight months of validity left when you submit.
Commercial sites claim another country’s embassy handles Malta’s Dhaka visa work under a representation agreement. No official Maltese page confirms it, and it is not your route regardless: Identità’s branch list puts the national long-stay visa in Banani.
What goes in at the Banani counter
- An enrolment letter that states the institution’s registration with the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority, the MQF level, the ECTS and the contact hours per week, and carries proof of payment
- Original bank statement covering the past six months. If a sponsor is paying, the sponsor’s six-month statement plus a guarantee letter and passport copy
- Health insurance valid across the Schengen area, minimum €30,000 cover, for the full validity of the visa
- Accommodation covering at least your first 14 nights, and a notarised Declaration of Proof form
- Passport with at least ten months left to run, and an entry ticket dated no more than two weeks before the course starts
- The euro visa fee, paid online when you book, plus the taka service charge taken at the centre on the day
What the counters ask for, stage by stage
| Stage | What the official page asks for |
|---|---|
| D-visa, Identità student checklist | Funds amounting to at least 75% of the national minimum wage for every month of study. Bank statement for the last three months with a recent bank certificate; if a sponsor pays, their three-month statement, a signed declaration letter and a copy of their ID card or passport bio page |
| D-visa, the Bangladesh checklist | Original bank statement for the past six months; where a sponsor covers the costs, six months from the sponsor too, plus a guarantee letter and a passport copy |
| D-visa, the daily test | €18 per day where accommodation is paid for the whole course; €26 per day where it is not, which is also how the first 14 nights are rated when booked through an online platform |
| e-Residence permit, non-EU | A balance of a minimum of €950 for each month of stay in Malta, or the equivalent in foreign currency |
| Identità FAQ formula | 60% of Malta’s annual national minimum wage or poverty line, whichever is higher, for your household size, pro-rated across your studies |
Rows one and five are formulas that resolve only once you know Malta’s current national minimum wage, and the labour department does not publish that figure in a form worth quoting. Work to the flat €950 a month and every row is satisfied.
Malta’s own paperwork yields a rate. Identità prices the extended-service centre fee at approximately €150; the Bangladesh one-pager charges BDT 20,900 for that same service, which works out at roughly BDT 139 to the euro — inferred from two official figures rather than quoted from a bank, and steadier than a market rate. On it, €950 a month is about BDT 1.32 lakh, and a twelve-month course means showing close to BDT 15.9 lakh at the permit counter, tuition excluded. Your own bank will settle at something else on the day.
Those two checklists disagree on more than the row above, in opposite directions. Identità’s national one asks three months of statements and ten months of passport validity; the one the Banani counter works from asks six months of statements and eight months of passport. The University of Malta also lands on three months, with visible transactions. Take the stricter half of each pair — six months of movement behind the balance, ten months left on the passport — and carry the fuller of the two sponsor sets. A lump sum that landed last week satisfies none of the three. Our document checklist for Bangladeshi students covers how that paperwork should look.
Insurance: the €30,000 policy that is not enough
At the visa stage you need Schengen-valid cover of at least €30,000, lasting as long as the visa. At the permit stage Identità wants a minimum of €100,000 for medical treatment and hospitalisation in Malta, and the University of Malta adds in-patient and day-care expenses plus evacuation and repatriation.
One exemption is worth real money: students at the University of Malta, MCAST or ITS need not buy private cover at the permit stage. Weighing a licensed private college against one of those three, put that beside the tuition.
Accommodation is a document, twice
For the visa: the first 14 nights and a notarised Declaration of Proof form. Book those nights through an online platform and the funds test rates you at €26 a day rather than €18, so a hurried reservation moves the amount you must show. The permit wants something heavier — a lease registered with the Housing Authority, a notarised Lease Agreement Attestation Form, and verification of the landlord.
The first room a senior recommends often comes with an unregistered lease and a landlord who would rather not be verified. That does not clear the permit counter. Read the accommodation guide before you sign anything remotely, and make landlord registration your opening question.
Tuition: full fees, no exemption, and one discount worth having
Non-EU students in Malta pay the international rate: no income-based reduction, no developing-country band. What exists instead is a fee waiver on the final year of longer MCAST bachelor’s programmes, worth more than most scholarship advertising in Dhaka.
A word on where these numbers come from. MCAST’s fees page for non-EU candidates still links only its 2024/2025 schedule; the 2026/2027 one sits on MCAST’s server, dated April 2026, unlinked from any page we could find. Every band in it is unchanged apart from a new one-year MQF 5 course at €6,700, so the figures are stable rather than stale — but ask mcastintapp@mcast.edu.mt which schedule applies to your intake.
| MCAST programme | Total course fee | Payable after final-year waiver | First instalment |
|---|---|---|---|
| MQF 4, 2 years | €8,500 | €8,500 | €4,000 |
| MQF 4, 3 years | €10,000 | €10,000 | €4,000 |
| MQF 5, 1 year | €6,700 | €6,700 | €4,000 |
| MQF 5, 2 years | €9,000 | €9,000 | €4,000 |
| MQF 6 Bachelor, 3 years | €19,500 | €13,000 | €4,250 |
| MQF 6 Bachelor, 4 years | €26,000 | €17,350 | €4,250 |
| MQF 7 Master, 18 months | €7,900 | €7,900 | €4,000 |
| MQF 7 Master, 2 years | €10,000 | €10,000 | €4,000 |
| MCAST International Students Course Fee Payment Schedule 2026/2027. The first instalment falls due within 30 days of invoice, and MCAST states that a visa applicant must pay it to receive the documents the application needs — so that column, not the total, is the sum your family has to find first | |||
MCAST also charges a €150 non-refundable application fee on a conditional offer, not levied on October-start programmes, offers instalment plans, and advertises a 70 per cent tax rebate on tuition on successful completion. The rebate does nothing for cash flow in year one, but across a three-year bachelor’s it belongs in the family’s sum.
The University of Malta publishes doctoral fees for non-EU and non-EEA students at €11,000 a year full-time and €5,500 part-time, plus a €100 processing fee for overseas qualifications by the first deadline and €200 after it. Taught fees sit course by course in the course finder, and the annual figures circulating on agency sites appear on no University of Malta page. Get your course’s number in writing from intadmissions@um.edu.mt, set it against what a first year abroad costs, and measure whoever quoted the other figure against how to verify a consultancy in Bangladesh.
English, and the part Malta makes easy
Malta’s higher education system teaches in English. Maltese is not required for a degree, and no local-language test stands between you and admission — a step Italy, Poland and Hungary all impose in some form.
The University of Malta accepts the standard Secure English Language Tests — IELTS Academic, TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic, Cambridge and Trinity ISE among them — plus its own test sat on campus. The minimum score rises with the level of study, so a foundation entry, a bachelor’s and a master’s do not ask for the same band. Find your course’s requirement on the admissions pages before you book a sitting; a retake nobody asked for is the commonest avoidable expense here. The guide to IELTS, PTE and TOEFL centres in Bangladesh covers each one.
Timing, and what you cannot compress
Work backwards, and note that Malta’s own pages give three lead times. Identità’s study FAQ says apply at least eight weeks before the course starts, and lets you book an appointment six months ahead. Its student checklist says nine weeks. MCAST tells its applicants 75 days. Take the longest, then add the six-to-eight-week decision window, which starts only once a complete file is lodged.
That file waits on an offer, a bank history you may need months to build, a notarised accommodation declaration and an insurance policy bought for dates you have not fixed. Results season in Bangladesh lands in the middle of the sequence for undergraduate applicants. Certificate authentication is not part of the wait: Malta filed no objection to Bangladesh’s Apostille Convention accession, so a Dhaka apostille works here — four destinations in our guide to studying in Europe from Bangladesh refuse one. The September or January intake guide sets out the intake trade-off. Visa status queries go to visa.identita@govt.mt.
Work: two starting lines, and a licence that gates both
Identità publishes this directly, and it is not one rule. Students on courses exceeding 90 days who fall outside Subsidiary Legislation 217.22 “will only be allowed to work a maximum of 20 hours per week after their first three (3) months of study in Malta”. Students on a full-time course leading to a higher education qualification recognised by MQRIC may work the same 20 hours “starting from their first year of study”. One cap, two starting lines, decided by the level of your course.
Neither line starts by itself. The hours begin once Jobsplus issues an employment licence, and Identità adds that an application fares better where the job relates to your field of study. No Jobsplus processing time for a student licence is published, so ask your institution how long its students have waited. Switching to full-time work mid-course is not permitted: the school must report it and the visa is revoked. The part-time work rules guide covers how other destinations handle it.
Common mistakes
- Accepting a course below MQF level 5 without knowing what that does to the residence permit
- Treating the visa as the whole permission, and landing without the three-month permit clock in the calendar
- Budgeting to a visa-stage formula when €950 a month is what the permit counter states
- Carrying three months of statements to a counter whose checklist asks for six
- Buying one insurance policy at €30,000 and discovering the permit stage wants €100,000
- Signing an unregistered lease, then failing the Housing Authority requirement
- Counting part-time earnings from week one, when the hours start only once Jobsplus issues the licence
Maltese institutions and their authorised representatives appear at BIEE editions in Dhaka. Take transcripts and your English result, and open at every stall with one question: what is the MQF level of this course? A representative who answers in a second, and can name the authority the institution is registered with, understands what they are selling. One who reaches for a brochure, or names the qualification instead of a number, has told you what the rest of the pitch is worth. How education fairs in Bangladesh work is worth reading first, and how to read university rankings before anyone shows you a league table.
Frequently asked questions
Which office in Dhaka takes a Malta student visa file?
The Dhaka Visa Application Centre at Borak Mehnur, 51/B, 8th Floor, Kemal Ataturk Avenue, Banani, Dhaka-1213, Sunday to Thursday, 09:00 to 14:00. Identità lists it on its own branch page, so the file does not travel to a third country’s embassy first; the decision is taken by the Central Visa Unit inside Identità in Malta. The courier return service does not cover Bangladesh, so plan a second trip to Banani for collection.
What happens if my Maltese course sits below MQF level 5?
The residence permit stops being available to you on arrival. Identità grants one only for a full-time course at MQF level 5 or above at a registered institution, and its Central Visa Unit guidelines say a student at MQF 4 or below must apply for one consecutive year of visas first. The level is an entitlement rather than a quality rating, so take it from the enrolment letter, which must state it.
Does the €950 a month rule apply before I fly or after?
That one belongs to the e-Residence stage, after you land: Identità asks for a minimum balance of €950 for every month of your stay, or the equivalent in foreign currency. The Banani counter measures you differently, against 75 per cent of Malta’s national minimum wage for each month of study, or a daily test of €18 where accommodation is paid for the whole course and €26 where it is not. Plan to €950 a month and both are satisfied.
What does a Malta student visa cost from Dhaka, all in?
Two amounts, in two currencies, at two moments. The visa fee is €100 for an appointment within three weeks or €150 for a next-day one, paid online when you book. The VFS service charge is BDT 13,935 on the standard service and BDT 20,900 on the extended one, taken at the Banani centre on the day. Neither is refunded if the application fails.
Can my father or my uncle sponsor my Malta application?
Yes, and the paperwork is specified twice over. The Bangladesh checklist asks for the sponsor’s original bank statement covering six months, a guarantee letter and a copy of the sponsor’s passport; Identità’s national checklist asks three months, a signed declaration letter and a copy of the sponsor’s ID card. Bring the six-month statement and both letters. A statement on its own is an incomplete sponsor file either way.
How much health insurance cover does Malta require?
€30,000 at the visa stage, valid across the Schengen area for as long as the visa runs, and a minimum of €100,000 at the permit stage for medical treatment and hospitalisation in Malta. Students at the University of Malta, MCAST and ITS are exempt from private cover at that second stage.
Do non-EU students pay full tuition in Malta?
Yes. There is no income-based reduction for international students. The one substantial discount published is MCAST’s final-year waiver on longer bachelor’s programmes, which takes a three-year MQF 6 course from €19,500 to €13,000 and a four-year one from €26,000 to €17,350. Those bands are unchanged in MCAST’s 2026/2027 schedule.
What do I have to do after I land in Malta?
Apply for the study residence permit within three months of arrival. It starts online at the Expatriates Unit portal and must then be submitted in person while you are in Malta. It costs €50, and you will need a lease registered with the Housing Authority, a notarised Lease Agreement Attestation Form and landlord verification — so the room you take in week one decides whether week ten goes smoothly.
Sources
- Identità, Malta — Central Visa Unit, National Visa (Long Stay Visa) (type D study category; the long-stay fee “is dependent on the scope of the application”; VAC fees “do not exceed the equivalent of €150”; appeal to the Immigration Appeals Board within 15 days)
- Identità, Malta — List of required documents, student national visa (PDF, version 2.1, 13.08.2025) (standard fee €100 and extended fee €150 for applicants aged 12 and above, €50 for ages 6–11, free under 6; funds of at least 75 per cent of the national minimum wage for every month of study; “Bank Statement of the last 3 months attached with a recent bank certificate”; sponsor’s three-month statement, signed declaration letter and copy of ID card or passport bio page; Schengen-valid insurance with minimum €30,000 cover; “Passport must have a validity of 10 months”; submit at least nine weeks before commencement; accommodation for the first 14 nights; entry ticket dated at most two weeks before the course starts; enrolment letter to state MFHEA registration, MQF level, ECTS and contact hours)
- Identità, Malta — Central Visa Unit, applicable fees (fees payable “in accordance with Fee Ordinance L.N.287 of 2020”) · Laws of Malta — L.N. 287 of 2020, Long-stay Visa Fees Regulations (Schedule: study purpose €70, any other purpose €100; no refund)
- Identità, Central Visa Unit — Student visa guidelines (PDF, updated 5 March 2025) (standard service €100 with an appointment within three weeks, extended service €150 with day-to-day appointments, plus VFS administration fees; €26 a day where accommodation is not paid for the whole course and €18 a day where it is; MQF 4 and below must apply for one consecutive year of visas before the study permit, MQF 5 and over may apply on arrival where the course exceeds six months; 20 hours a week once Jobsplus issues the employment licence; the 105-day long-stay threshold)
- Identità, Malta — Visa frequently asked questions (study D-visas filed through the Extended service; apply at least eight weeks before commencement, bookable up to six months ahead; VFS admin fee of approximately €150; courier return service country list; 20 hours once the Jobsplus licence issues; visa revoked on switching to full-time employment)
- Identità, Malta — Central Visa Unit, student visa employment (20 hours a week after the first three months of study for students outside S.L. 217.22; 20 hours from the first year of study for full-time courses leading to an MQRIC-recognised higher education qualification; Jobsplus conditions and sector restrictions)
- Identità, Malta — Visa Extended Service branches (Dhaka Visa Application Centre, Borak Mehnur 51/B, 8th Floor, Kemal Ataturk Avenue, Banani, Dhaka-1213; Sunday to Thursday 09:00 to 14:00)
- Identità, Malta — Expatriates Unit: study, research, trainees, volunteers, interns (€50 permit fee; online application then in-person submission in Malta; passport validity of at least eight months; registered institution, full-time, MQF level 5 or above)
- Identità, Malta — Frequently asked questions, non-EU study (the 60 per cent of annual minimum wage or poverty line formula; €100,000 insurance cover; University of Malta, MCAST and ITS exemption)
- Malta Extended Services, Bangladesh — Malta services in Bangladesh (Student Visa Extended €150 plus BDT 20,900, Standard €100 plus BDT 13,935; visa fee paid when booking the appointment online, service charge levied at the centre; fees non-refundable on refusal; minimum six to eight weeks; visa.identita@govt.mt)
- Malta Extended Services, Bangladesh — Extended service checklist (PDF) (“Original bank statement for the past 6 months”; sponsor statement for six months with guarantee letter and passport copy; travel document “should be valid for at least 8 months”)
- University of Malta — Visas for international students (three months of statements with transactions; €950 per month of stay at the e-Residence stage; permit application within three months of arrival; insurance covering in-patient and day-care expenses plus evacuation and repatriation; Housing Authority registered lease and notarised attestation)
- University of Malta — Fees and funding (doctoral fees for non-EU and non-EEA students at €11,000 full-time and €5,500 part-time; application processing fee for overseas qualifications of €100 by the first deadline and €200 thereafter; undergraduate and postgraduate taught fees published per course; intadmissions@um.edu.mt)
- HCCH (Hague Conference on Private International Law) — Apostille Convention status table (Bangladesh in force 30 March 2025; twelve states objected to the accession, Malta not among them)
- MCAST — International Students Course Fee Payment Schedule 2026/2027 (PDF) (all bands above, with first instalments due within 30 days of invoice) · Fee payments for non-EU candidates (still links the 2024/2025 schedule; €150 non-refundable application fee, not applicable to October-start programmes; instalment plans; visa applicants must pay the first instalment to receive their documents and should apply at least 75 days before the start date; 70 per cent tax rebate on tuition on successful completion; mcastintapp@mcast.edu.mt)
Last confirmed with Identità, MCAST and the University of Malta in August 2026. Two of the gaps above are Malta’s own, not ours: the fee regulation Identità cites still prints €70 for a study visa while its own checklist charges €100 or €150, and MCAST’s 2026/2027 payment schedule sits on its server unlinked from the fees page it replaces. Neither will be tidied up on your account, and the superseded page stays online for anyone who wants to quote it at you. Where two Maltese documents disagree, carry the stricter of the pair and let the counter be the one to tell you it was more than it needed.
Ask the universities themselves, in one hall
65th Bangladesh International Education Expo · 26–28 November 2026 · ICCB, Dhaka. Free entry — bring this page and put its questions to the stall.
International Convention City Bashundhara (ICCB), Bashundhara, Dhaka, Bangladesh · Free entry
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