Malta Post Tracking

MaltaPost tracking lets you follow a letter, registered item, parcel, or EMS courier shipment handled by Malta's national postal operator from acceptance to delivery. MaltaPost p.l.c. is the sole licensed Universal Service Provider of postal services in Malta, delivering to every address across Malta and Gozo six days a week. To track a MaltaPost item, enter your tracking number in the tracker at the top of this page and you will see the latest scan, location, and status drawn directly from the MaltaPost Track and Trace network.

MaltaPost Tracking Number Format

A MaltaPost international tracking number is a 13-character code that follows the Universal Postal Union (UPU) S10 standard: two letters, nine digits, and a two-letter country code (for example, EE123456789MT). The two leading letters identify the service category, the nine digits are the unique item serial number, and the final "MT" is the ISO country code for Malta, confirming the item was registered into the MaltaPost network.

The first letter of the prefix tells you what kind of service the item travels under. Under the S10 standard, "E" prefixes indicate EMS (Express Mail Service) items, "R" prefixes indicate registered items, and "C" prefixes indicate ordinary parcels and small packets. Letters and registered mail posted inside Malta also carry barcoded labels you scan into Track and Trace, while bulky domestic parcels collected through Easipik lockers may show a shorter numeric reference instead of a full S10 code.

For an item arriving from abroad, the tracking number is created by the origin postal operator, not by MaltaPost. A parcel from China keeps its "...CN" S10 number, an item from the United Kingdom keeps its "...GB" number, and so on, until it is handed to MaltaPost for final delivery in Malta. You can usually find the number on the post office receipt, the seller's shipping confirmation email, or the marketplace order page.

MaltaPost Tracking Number Example

The table below lists the MaltaPost and inbound number formats you are most likely to see, with the prefix meaning drawn from the UPU S10 service categories. Where a prefix can cover more than one product, treat it as a commonly seen pattern rather than a guarantee, because the first letter alone does not always pin down the exact service.

MaltaPost Tracking Status Guide

MaltaPost Track and Trace records a scan each time your item changes hands, from acceptance at a Malta or Gozo branch through customs clearance to final delivery. The table below explains the statuses you will commonly see and what each one means for your parcel.

What to Do If a MaltaPost Parcel Is Delayed or Not Updating

If your MaltaPost tracking has not updated for several days, the most common reason is that the parcel is sitting at the office of exchange waiting for customs clearance or a VAT payment. International shipments often go quiet during the cross-border handoff, when an item has left the sender's country but has not yet been scanned into the MaltaPost network.

Give an inbound international parcel a little patience: Parcel Post items can take 10 to 20 working days depending on origin, and tracking may only refresh at major milestones rather than every step. If you bought from a non-EU marketplace, check whether MaltaPost has sent you a customs notification asking for VAT or a clearance fee, because the parcel will not move until that is settled.

For EMS International Courier items, MaltaPost asks that any enquiry about a consignment be submitted within 30 days of the posting date. If a registered or insured item appears lost or has stalled well beyond its expected window, contact MaltaPost customer care with the tracking number so a formal trace or claim can be opened.

MaltaPost Services and Delivery Times Compared

MaltaPost runs a full range of services, from everyday letter mail to express international courier, and each comes with its own speed and tracking level. The table below compares the main products so you can match the service shown on your label to a realistic delivery expectation.

Delivery times are estimates and depend on the destination, customs, and seasonal volumes. Registered Mail, Parcel Post, and EMS all capture a signature on delivery, while ordinary letter mail is delivered without a tracked end-to-end record.

MaltaPost Delivery and Transit Times Across Malta and Gozo

MaltaPost delivers to every address in Malta and Gozo six days a week, covering the entire archipelago including the main island of Malta, the sister island of Gozo, and the smaller island of Comino's serviced points. Domestic registered and parcel items typically complete their journey within a few working days of acceptance, with most of the transit time spent in sorting rather than line-haul, given Malta's compact geography.

For collections and missed deliveries, MaltaPost operates a retail network of 27 sub-post offices alongside 431 stamp vendors across the two islands, plus 24/7 Easipik parcel lockers that registered users can collect from free of charge at locations around Malta and Gozo. If a parcel cannot be delivered to your door, tracking will usually switch to "available for collection" and point you to the holding branch or locker.

Inbound parcels take longer because the clock includes the origin country's processing, the flight to Malta, and customs. A small packet from within the EU often arrives faster than one from Asia or the Americas, since EU items move under the single market and usually skip the duty and VAT hold that non-EU parcels face.

Which Countries Does MaltaPost Deliver To?

MaltaPost delivers domestically across Malta and Gozo and reaches the rest of the world through the Universal Postal Union network and its own express products, with MaltaPost Express International quoted as serving over 200 countries. As a UPU member operator, MaltaPost hands outbound mail to partner postal operators abroad, who complete the last mile, and receives inbound mail from those same partners for delivery in Malta.

Domestically, coverage spans the urban harbour region around Valletta, the Three Cities, and Sliema, the central towns of Birkirkara, Mosta, and Qormi, the south around Marsaxlokk and Zejtun, and the whole of Gozo from Victoria (Rabat) outward. Internationally, the heaviest flows are with Malta's main trading partners in Europe, followed by parcels from China and the wider Asia Pacific region driven by online shopping.

Typical destinations and origins handled by MaltaPost include:

• Domestic: Malta, Gozo, and serviced points on Comino.
• Europe: Italy, where many parcels transit or originate via Poste Italiane tracking; the United Kingdom, a major trade and diaspora link served on the British side by Royal Mail tracking; and France, Germany, and Spain, with French items handled by La Poste tracking.
• MENA and North Africa: nearby markets across the Mediterranean.
• North America: the United States and Canada.
• Asia Pacific: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, and Singapore.

MaltaPost Cross-Border Customs, VAT, and International Handoff

When you buy from outside the EU, you become the importer, and the parcel must clear Malta customs before MaltaPost can deliver it. Import VAT in Malta is generally charged at 18% on the value of the goods including shipping and any duty, and when that VAT was not collected by the seller at checkout, it must be paid to MaltaPost before the item is released.

"When you buy a product from a non-EU country such as China, you effectively become an importer and are liable to Customs and Excise Duty as well as Value Added Tax (VAT) payments." (MaltaPost, Customs and VAT, 2024.)

From 1 July 2026, the EU removes the customs-duty exemption on low-value parcels, and Malta applies a new charge of 3 euros per distinct product category (HS code) on consignments valued at or below 150 euros from outside the EU, rather than a single charge per parcel. MaltaPost also provides customs clearance facilitation to help move postal items through Malta Customs, and may apply a handling fee on items that need additional scrutiny.

For outbound international mail, MaltaPost completes export formalities and dispatches the item from Malta's office of exchange to the destination country's postal operator, which then handles delivery. This UPU-based handoff is why an outbound tracking number stops updating in MaltaPost's system once the item leaves Malta and continues under the partner operator abroad.

What Is MaltaPost and How Big Is Its Network?

MaltaPost p.l.c. is the national postal operator of Malta and the country's sole licensed Universal Service Provider, regulated by the Malta Communications Authority. The modern company was registered on 16 April 1998 and began operations on 1 May 1998, taking over from the former Posts Department, and it has since carried Malta's letters, parcels, and express shipments under one brand.

Postal services on the islands run far deeper than the modern company. A formal postal service was first established under the Order of Malta in 1708, the General Post Office in Valletta was set up in 1885, and Malta has long been a member of the Universal Postal Union, the United Nations body that coordinates international mail. MaltaPost today operates the EMS Express Mail Service alongside its letter and parcel products as part of that global framework.

Ownership has moved steadily into private hands: the government sold 35% of MaltaPost to Transcend Worldwide Ltd. in 2002, a further 25% went to Lombard Bank plc in 2007, and Lombard Bank has since become the majority shareholder. Malta's postal market was fully liberalised on 1 January 2013 in line with EU directives, so MaltaPost now competes in an open market while keeping its Universal Service Provider obligations.

MaltaPost Marketplace Collaborations and Online Shopping

Most parcels MaltaPost handles for consumers today are online orders, and the heaviest inbound volumes come from the big China-based marketplaces that ship to Malta: AliExpress, Temu, Shein, and Alibaba, alongside Amazon and EU retailers such as Zalando. Because Malta has no dominant home-grown marketplace of its own, these international platforms account for the bulk of the cross-border parcels arriving on the islands.

When you order from these marketplaces, the parcel travels from the seller's country to Malta and is handed to MaltaPost for the final leg, which is why your marketplace tracking number often only starts showing MaltaPost scans once the item reaches the office of exchange. For non-EU orders, expect a customs and VAT step before delivery, and from 1 July 2026 the new 3 euro per HS-code charge on low-value parcels as well.

MaltaPost also runs SendOn, a personal shopping and forwarding service that gives customers UK and other overseas delivery addresses so they can buy from retailers that do not ship to Malta directly, then have the goods consolidated and forwarded home. Whether your order comes through SendOn or straight from a marketplace, you can follow the Malta leg of the journey with the MaltaPost tracking number in the tracker on this page.