How the I Belong certificate connects to Malta Long-Term Residence

What Identità’s Long-Term Residence guidance says

Identità — the institution that administers Long-Term Residence status for third-country nationals, and the top authority in this guide’s source hierarchy for permit-related requirements — describes the integration-related documentation requirement in its own published guidance as:

“Completing Malta’s official ‘I Belong’ Integration Course (100 hours) and achieving a minimum score of 75% in the final exam”

The same guidance separately names a Maltese-language certificate (MQF Level 2) requiring a minimum mark of 65%, and states that the relevant documentation is required within twelve months of the application. This is a directly fetched, fully verified Identità source — the strongest authority this guide has for Long-Term Residence requirements specifically.

What the Human Rights Directorate now says — updated 15 June 2026

The Human Rights Directorate — the top authority in this guide’s source hierarchy for I Belong Programme structure specifically — restructured the programme on 15 June 2026. Its page now states that, “as from 15 June 2026, the I Belong programme will only focus on the provision of I Belong 100-hour Cultural Orientation course (previously called as Stage 2 Cultural Orientation),” and that “successful completion of I Belong Cultural Orientation at 100-hours is considered one of the requirements for Long-Term Residence Status (LTR) in Malta.”

This matters for the figures below. The Directorate now describes a 100-hour Cultural Orientation course — the same 100-hour count Identità’s guidance uses. Two points remain worth noting: the Directorate no longer publishes a numeric pass mark for the 100-hour course (the 75% figure now comes only from Identità’s guidance), and the Directorate now offers the separate Maltese Language (MQF Level 2) course only to applicants who applied before 15 June 2026.

For anyone who applied before 15 June 2026, the Directorate previously described Stage 2 as two named courses — Maltese Language for Integration (MQF Level 2, 50 hours, minimum 65%) and Cultural Orientation (MQF Level 2, 120 hours, 80% attendance and minimum 75%), totalling 170 hours. That two-course structure is preserved here, dated, because those earlier applicants may still take both courses.

The figures, side by side

On the central figure the two authorities now agree: both describe a roughly 100-hour Cultural Orientation course. Before the 15 June 2026 restructuring the Directorate had described a two-course, 170-hour Stage 2 structure, which is why earlier versions of this guide flagged a 100-vs-170 discrepancy; the Directorate’s own description has since been updated and now aligns on roughly 100 hours. The remaining points — a pass mark published only by Identità, and a separate Maltese-language certificate the Directorate now limits to earlier applicants — we state plainly rather than reconcile away. See the updates page for the change log, and note that the Directorate says “further changes may be announced at a later stage.”

What “one of the requirements” means in practice

It is worth being precise about scope here too: official wording describes successful completion of the 100-hour Cultural Orientation course as “one of the requirements for Long-Term Residence Status (LTR) in Malta” — not the only one. Identità’s own Long-Term Residence guidance sets out further conditions, including requirements related to the length and continuity of residence in Malta, that operate independently of the integration-certificate requirement described here. This guide focuses on the integration-certificate piece because that is where the I Belong Programme connects to the wider application — for the full Long-Term Residence picture, the official guidance is the authoritative source.