Maxi-Pedia Forum

I am UK national living in Thailand who wants to exercise my EU treaty rights and apply for residency once in Malta. My Thai wife is also allowed to apply as the spouse of an EU national.

The problem is this. Malta has no embassy here in Bangkok and their visa interests are dealt with by the Austrian embassy. However, they are proving difficult to deal with and asking me for requirements that is not needed by an EU spouse. They said to apply for residency in Malta, I need to be on a long visa (D) but I'm quite certain this isn't the case. Has anyone had experience in applying for Maltese residency?

My second option, is to apply from the Czech embassy who are very cooperative and easy to deal with. Now, I understand that the Schengen visa has to be obtained from the country you will be spending the most time or your first point of entry. However, how strictly is this enforced? If me and my wife turned up in Malta with a Czech issued Schengen, would this bother border guards? Is this grounds for refusal?

Any advice on this would be most welcome.

The Schengen visa has to be obtained from the country you will be spending the most time (i.e. your main destination), not from the country of your first point of entry. That is why you often have to support your visa application with your travel itinerary, flight tickets, hotel reservations, etc. If you stay in Malta with Czech issued Schengen visa, you just have to "say" that you only travel through Malta as your temporary destination.