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Schengen Short-Stay, Type CVerified 12 May 2026Malta Schengen Type C visa for Indian seafarers joining or disembarking from vessels in Malta harbour. Initiated by the shipping company/maritime agency.
What it costs
Exact embassy fee, VFS charge and our service fee are confirmed for your case before you pay anything.
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SureshotVisa specialises in individual short-stay and student visas, not carrier-specific seafarer submissions. The shipping company / maritime agency in Malta initiates the invitation with seafarer's book details, ship name and flag, port and itinerary. We can advise on the VFS step once the shipping-company documentation is in hand, but the underlying employment / vessel arrangements are handled by the shipping company directly.
Check the official requirements
Guide last reviewed 2026-05-12. Fees, documents and appointment rules can change.
Malta — Schengen member · High Commission New Delhi · AIP from Identità rules everything
All India applications are decided by the High Commission of Malta, New Delhi (NOT Embassy — Malta is Commonwealth) through VFS Malta centres. The High Commission also handles Nepal + Maldives. Bangladesh applicants route Short-Stay (C) through the Embassy of Italy in Dhaka. For Long-Stay D Visas (Employment / Study / Family Reunification), the substantive decision is made by Identità in Malta (Valley Road, Msida) — Employment requires an Approval in Principle (AIP) letter before VFS, FR requires an Identità certificate, Study requires MFHEA-accredited enrolment.
(1) Birth / marriage certificates must be apostilled by India's Ministry of External Affairs — not just notarised. (2) The “Declaration of Proof”-accommodation cases must be witnessed by a Maltese Public Notary (inside Malta) — Indian notarisation doesn't qualify. (3) 5-day rule: VFS gives a 5-day window for missing documents; after that the file is refused.
Note: SureshotVisa handles the 9 Schengen Short-Stay (Type C) categories — Tourist, Business, Visit Family/Friends, Cultural/Sport/Film Crew, Family of EU/EEA, Official Delegation, Student/Religious C, Medical, and Seamen (informational) — plus 3 Long-Stay D Visas (Employment, Study, Family Reunification) end-to-end through VFS. The substantive Identità step inside Malta is initiated by your Maltese-side employer / institution / sponsor; we coordinate but the decision happens in Malta, not in India.
Applicants for a Seamen's visa must be employed in any capacity on board a vessel, seeking to enter Malta solely to join a vessel or to depart with a vessel for a foreign port. The application is carrier-driven: the shipping company in India confirms the seafarer's role and Malta destination, while the shipping agency in Malta confirms the embarking arrangements (vessel name, flag, port, embarking/disembarking dates). SureshotVisa does not handle carrier-specific crew submissions — we focus on individual short-stay and student visas. This page is informational; speak directly with your shipping company / maritime agency.
What it costs
Paid directly to Malta / VFS — these are not our service fee, and we never mark them up.
Figures per VFS Global, last verified 12 May 2026. Fees change without notice — the official page is final.
Visa fees are set by the High Commission of Malta in INR and tied to the EUR / INR exchange rate — they are revised periodically. All fees and VFS service charges are non-refundable in case of refusal. VFS service charges are inclusive of CGST 9% + SGST 9%. Optional VFS services: Courier ₹795, SMS ₹146, Premium Lounge ₹3,917, Courier + Assurance ₹1,040, Form Filling ₹3,182 — all non-refundable. From 1 January 2026, travel medical insurance must be issued by one of the 16 approved Indian insurance companies on the Malta-approved list — generic policies are not accepted.
Flights · Hotels · Insurance · Itinerary
Malta applies the Schengen rules, so travel insurance is not a nice-to-have — it is a legal condition of the visa.
2 of 4 are compulsory for Malta
Where people slip: Flying into one city and out of another with nothing showing how you travel between them. Officers read the whole route, and an unexplained gap reads as a plan that does not hold together.
Book for ₹708 (+₹472 per family member)Where people slip: Free-cancellation bookings are accepted, but if the entire file is free-cancellation the officer sees a trip nobody has committed to. Some of it should be real spend.
Confirmed hotel booking, ₹590 per hotel: message us firstWhere people slip: Buying cover for the adults and forgetting the children. Every traveller needs their own EUR 30,000, infants included — a real refusal we have seen on a family of four.
What a Schengen policy must showWhere people slip: Spending more nights in another Schengen country than in Malta. That gets a file rejected before it is even assessed.
The letter your itinerary attaches toWe can arrange the flight reservation, the hotel and the itinerary for your Malta file — each sold separately.
We are a B2B travel agency as well as a visa consultancy, working with partners including Riya Travel — so the flight reservation and the confirmed hotel booking both come from us, and you deal with one team. Every booking is a real one under your own name. We do not sell travel insurance: buy the policy directly from an insurer.
None of them is part of our visa fee: each is bought on its own, at the price below, with or without our visa service.
Flight reservation ₹708 (+₹472 per extra family member) · Confirmed hotel booking ₹590 per hotel · Travel itinerary ₹1,499. GST included.
Delivery. Usually within 30 minutes during office hours, Mon–Sat 10:00–18:00 IST. Confirmed hotel bookings are not bought online: message us first on WhatsApp or email info@sureshotvisa.com with the city, dates and travellers.
Tell us your dates — we will say which of these you actually need
What to gather
Having a document isn't the same as presenting it right — that's the part we handle.
Download from visa.vfsglobal.com/ind/en/mlt/. For minors, BOTH parents must sign and parent ID proof attached.
ICAO standards, less than 6 months old, colour, face 70–80% of frame, PASTED (not stapled) on the form. Biometrics + a fresh photo are also captured at VFS.
Max 10 years old, valid ≥3 months beyond Schengen return (≥8 months for D / ≥10 months for Student D), ≥3 BLANK PAGES (Malta-specific — not 2). Handwritten / non-machine-readable Indian passports issued after 01.04.2010 not accepted.
Old passport mandatory for all nationalities under High Commission of Malta rules.
Mandatory across all Malta visa categories.
Strengthens travel history.
Confirms applicant is going to Malta to join a ship; name + telephone + e-mail of contact person in Malta; name and references of vessel ownership; length of stopover in Malta; that employer takes full responsibility for all expenses while in Malta. Signed and stamped by company/agency.
Signed and stamped. Includes: seafarer's name + place/DOB + passport + seafarer's book number + validity, position on vessel, name + flag of vessel, port and date of boarding/disembarking, itinerary to Malta (entry date + airport), Indian agency collaborating, and Maltese agency's commitment to bear all responsibility for the seafarer (including repatriation).
Required · optional / if applicable
7 steps from intake to approval — never as linear as government sites pretend.
Confirm Malta is your main Schengen destination
Apply via Malta if your itinerary spends most time (or has its main purpose) there. If splitting time evenly between Schengen states, apply through the country of first entry. Bangladesh applicants apply through the Embassy of Italy in Dhaka.
Download + complete the Malta Schengen visa application form
Get the form from visa.vfsglobal.com/ind/en/mlt/. Fully fill in (in English), date, sign. For minors, BOTH parents must sign. Paste the 35×45mm photograph (do not staple).
Get supporting documents in order
Passport (≤10 years old, ≥3 blank pages, ≥3 months validity beyond return) + Aadhaar (Indians) + EUR 30,000 insurance from one of 16 approved Indian companies + bank statements (3 months, stamped) + ITR (2 years) + employer/sponsor letters + accommodation + flight reservation. Take ORIGINAL + photocopy of every document.
Book your VFS appointment online
Schedule at visa.vfsglobal.com/ind/en/mlt/. Pay VFS service charge ₹2,883 in cash / Visa / Mastercard / RuPay at the centre. Optional services: Courier ₹795 / SMS ₹146 / Premium Lounge ₹3,917.
Submit at VFS in person + biometrics
Attend with all documents (original + photocopy in equal number to applicants). Biometrics + a fresh photograph captured at the centre. Children below 1 year are exempt from biometric process — submit 2 photos instead. 5-DAY LIMIT for any missing documents — after that the file is refused.
Wait for the decision (15 calendar days standard)
The High Commission of Malta, New Delhi decides. Cochin / Lucknow / Nepal applications add 3 days transit; Maldives add 6 working days. Allow an additional 3–6 days for document transmission between VFS and the High Commission. Apply 4 weeks (ideally 6) before travel.
Collect your passport from VFS
Once notified, collect from VFS or via the optional courier service. Verify visa validity dates, entry type, and stay duration before leaving the counter.
Biometrics and the visit to the visa centre are yours to attend in person — no consultancy can do those for you. How we work
Each link opens the official page that issues the form (we never host third-party forms) — download or fill the current version there.
We're actively building per-visa quizzes. For now, the best way to assess your eligibility for Seamen Visa (Schengen Short-Stay, Type C) is a 1-on-1 consultation with our team.
A consultant at our licensed firm replies today
Every case here is different
There is no honest standard answer for Malta seamen visa (schengen short-stay, type c) — the route depends on who is sponsoring you, what the employer has already started, and which region is processing it. So rather than publish generic answers that may not fit your case, we would rather read your actual situation. Send us what you have: an offer letter, an email from the employer, or just the facts as they stand. A consultant at our licensed firm will tell you straight what is possible, what is not, and what it would take.
A consultant at our licensed firm replies today
Reviewed by Sherbir Singh Grewal, SureshotVisa — a government-licensed consultancy (Licence 849/DC/PTA/PLA/LC-3/2024). Verify us.
Source & Disclaimer
Data on this page is sourced from the official VFS Global Malta website and Embassy of Malta. Last verified 2026-05-12. Always verify with the official embassy before applying — fees and requirements change without notice.
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