Eligibility criteria for I Belong Stage 1 and Stage 2

Who can take Stage 1

Official information describes Stage 1 — the Pre-Integration Course — as open to foreign nationals aged 18 years and above. That is effectively the entire published eligibility criteria for who may begin the programme: an age threshold, with no separately published list of qualifying visa categories, residence statuses, or nationalities attached to it in the wording we have found.

Attached to that description is an explicit operating caveat, worth reading carefully: “eligibility, access, course delivery, and programme modalities are subject to the applicable legislation, availability of course places, and programme arrangements in force at the time of course delivery.” This means the practical rules that apply to your application are the ones in force at the moment you actually enrol — which can differ from a general description like this one, and from how the rules worked for someone who went through the programme previously.

The prerequisite for the 100-hour Cultural Orientation course

As from 15 June 2026 the Human Rights Directorate describes eligibility for the 100-hour Cultural Orientation course (previously Stage 2 Cultural Orientation) as requiring a valid Residence Permit, Asylum Seeker Document, or CIO Document issued by the Maltese authorities, together with an “I Belong Stage 1 Cultural Orientation certificate or New Course on Maltese Language and Culture certificate.”

The New Course on Maltese Language and Culture — developed under the Malta Labour Migration Policy framework — is the current prerequisite course, having replaced the discontinued Stage 1 Cultural Orientation; the Directorate says it “remains a requirement for participation in I Belong Cultural Orientation at 100-hours course.” Under the pre-15-June structure, eligibility was defined instead through Stage 1: “only individuals who graduated from Stage 1: Pre Integration Course can apply for Stage 2: Integration Course.” If you hold an existing recognised certificate and want to know whether it satisfies the prerequisite, that is a question for the programme directly, not something this guide can confirm either way.

What official wording does not say — and why that matters

It is just as useful to know what official eligibility wording leaves unaddressed. We have not found published statements describing:

• whether holders of recognised English, Maltese, or cultural-orientation qualifications can have any part of Stage 1 waived;
• whether there is an upper age limit, or any age-related accommodation;
• how the 15 June 2026 restructuring — which discontinued the Stage 1 courses and made the New Course on Maltese Language and Culture the prerequisite — affects people who were already partway through the former Stage 1 courses; or
• what happens if your residence status changes between graduating Stage 1 and applying for Stage 2.

We are not speculating about any of these — each is a question best put directly to the Human Rights Directorate using the published contact channel. See official I Belong Programme contacts.