S.L. 188.6 Art. 3Interpretation. 

In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires:

"Act" means the Maltese Citizenship Act;

"Agency" means the Community Malta Agency established by the Community Malta Agency (Establishment) Order;

"applicant" means an applicant who submits an application for citizenship of Malta by naturalisation in accordance with these regulations and shall also include a main applicant who applies on his own behalf and on behalf of a dependant or a person who applies on behalf of another person, but does not include a dependant;

"application" means any proposal or application made by the applicant in accordance with these regulations;

"authenticated translation" means a translation made by a recognised translator;

"certified copy" means a photocopy of an original document certified to be a true copy of the original, by a duly warranted lawyer, notary public, commissioner for oaths, Maltese consular or diplomatic officer, in accordance with such

*Vide regulation 25 of Legal Notice 159 of 2025. †Vide regulation 25 of Legal Notice 159 of 2025. ‡Vide regulation 25 of Legal Notice 159 of 2025. THE BASIS OF MERIT

guidelines as the Agency may issue from time to time;

"Commissioner" means the Information and Data

Protection Commissioner as defined in the Data Protection Act;

"dependant" means the family members of the main applicant in terms of these regulations, to the extent indicated and strictly related to the naturalisation process and shall include:

(a) the spouse of the main applicant in a monogamous marriage or partner in another relationship having the same or similar status to a monogamous marriage, including a civil union, domestic partnership, common law marriage, provided that for the purpose of these regulations, the term "spouse" shall be construed as gender neutral, and saving the discretion of the Minister to authorise, on a case by case basis, other relationships having a similar status as aforesaid;

(b) a child of the main applicant or of his dependant as defined in paragraph (a) including an adopted child, who has not yet attained eighteen (18) years of age at the time when the main applicant submits a proposal letter in terms of regulation 11A which is accepted by the Agency;

(c) a child of the main applicant or of his dependant as defined in paragraph (a) including an adopted child, who has attained eighteen (18) years of age but has not yet attained twenty-nine (29) years of age, when the main applicant submits a proposal letter in terms of regulation 11A which is accepted by the Agency, and who is not married and proves, to the satisfaction of the Minister, that he is wholly maintained or otherwise largely supported by the main applicant;

(d) a child of the main applicant or of his dependant as defined in paragraph (a), including an adopted child, who at the time when the main applicant submits a proposal letter in accordance with these regulations has attained eighteen (18) years of age and is wholly maintained or otherwise largely supported by the main applicant and is a qualified person with a disability as defined in the Equal Opportunities (Persons with Disability) Act:

Provided that where such child does not have legal capacity the provisions of article 21(3) of the Act shall apply; "designated competent body" means the locally registered entity in Malta as designated by the Agency from time to time that is capable of determining whether an individual is recognised in a particular field as a leading talent, or has demonstrated exceptional promise and is likely to become a leading talent or is of exceptional interest to the Republic of Malta or otherwise falls within the parameters of article 10(9) of the Act;

"due diligence data" means any personal data pertaining to the applicant, or the dependant or dependants if applicable, collected and processed by the Agency as part of the due diligence process, excluding the personal data collected by the Agency directly from the applicant or the dependant or dependants, if applicable;

"Evaluation Board" or the "Board" means the group of individuals appointed in accordance with these regulations to evaluate applications made in a c c o r d a n c e w i t h article 10(9) of the Act and to prepare a recommendation with regard to each application to be referred to the Minister responsible for citizenship in terms of these regulations;

"exceptional" shall have the same meaning assigned to it in article 10(9) of the Act;

"exceptional contributions" shall have the same meaning assigned to it in article 10(9) of the Act;

"exceptional interest" shall have the same meaning assigned to it in article 10(9) of the Act;

"exceptional services" shall have the same meaning assigned to it in article 10(9) of the Act;

"letter of approval" means the letter issued following the approval of the application for naturalisation on the basis of merit submitted by the applicant as provided for in regulation 11B;

"letter of approval in principle" means the letter issued following the approval in principle of the proposal letter made by the applicant as provided for in regulation 11A;

"main applicant" means the person who submits an application in terms of these regulations wherein dependants are included;

"Minister" shall h a v e the same meaning assigned to it in article 2 o f the Act; THE BASIS OF MERIT

"person" means a physical person and where applicable means a legal person;

"Regulation" means Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC.

Part II*

Applications for citizenship by naturalisation on the basis of merit