A number of Maltese citizenship applications have been approved and applicants may have their passports in a few months, since they have been resident in Malta for some time, according to Identity Malta CEO Jonathan Cardona.

The residency clause was added to the original Individual Investor Programme in February, along with the requirement to invest or rent a property.

The successful applicants will eventually be included in the annual list published in the Government Gazette, but the fact that they got their citizenship through the IIP will not be noted.

In the meantime, Identity Malta is processing more of the 150 companies that applied to become agents for the scheme.

The list now stands at 33 approved and Mr Cardona anticipates that around 50 will eventually make it through.

Things have changed considerably since the IIP was launched giving Henley & Partners near-omnipotent powers.

Although they are still officially the “concessionaire”, the way that the agents’ structure has been set up under the control of Identity Malta means Henley & Partners are now just “the first among equals”, he said.