Somebody has raised an important point: are we going to define ‘spouse’ under Maltese law or the law of country of origin?

Published: October 8, 2013 at 8:59pm

The Citizenship Act amendments, as envisaged, allow the applicant to pay further small sums for the spouse, children (unmarried) up to the age of 25, and parents aged 55+.

Given that this initiative is targetted at non-EU citizens only, and that the obvious marketplace is the one that they’re working on already in other spheres, how are we going to define ‘spouse’?

Shiv Nair’s business partner Jaime Cremona (they are in La Valette Corporation Ltd, Nair’s company, together) has been appointed Malta’s new ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

So let’s say an applicant has four wives and 50 children (at this stage, who cares about the fact that he also has two parents). He pays his Eur650,000, adds on the relatively insignificant per capita toll for wives and children, and bingo, that’s 55 Maltese passports (57, if his parents also want in).

We needn’t worry about Shiv Nair’s passport-hunting Chinese friends: they have that one-child policy – rigorously and savagely policed, as we have seen.




6 Comments Comment

  1. La Redoute says:

    Labour’s idea of due diligence, as Muscat has amply demonstrated, is as slack as old knicker elastic. It’s just as well Usama Bin Laden’s gone, or he might have picked up a Maltese-EU passport.

  2. Antonio says:

    So our PM will push back illegal immigrants but he would gladly give them a Maltese passport if they pay €650,000 for it?

  3. curious says:

    Are we going to know who the applicants are or will information be given after the fait accompli, if that?

  4. Josette says:

    In the definition of dependent, there is a reference to a spouse in “a monogamous marriage or in another relationship having the same or a similar status to marriage, unless the Minister authorises otherwise on a case by case basis”.

    [Daphne – There you go then. Give Manuel Mallia a ring and he’ll find passports for all your 10 wives and 90 children.]

  5. Bubu says:

    Daphne, the one child polocy of China doesn’t apply for those who can pay for exemptions.

    Obviously if they can afford to pay hundreds of thousands for a Maltese passport, they can pay to have more children.

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