Good News Become an E-Resident of Estonia ( State fee Only : €100-120.)

Estonia is the first country to offer e-Residency, a government-issued digital identity and status that provides access to Estonia’s transparent digital business environment.

What the benefits of e-residency are what it is the process and cost and what is required documents.

How to apply.

More than 70 000 people from 170 countries are Estonian e-residents.

First what is e-residency exactly Estonian e-residency is a government-issued digital identity that was created in order for foreign entrepreneurs to manage business from anywhere ,entirely online .

To be able to set up a company remotely in Estonia so that they could access the EU market and have a tax domicile so you could get a digital id in Estonia with a company and potentially a bank account without ever going there after that you can manage your new EU-based company from anywhere in the world and I definitely recommend checking out Estonia e-residency's website because they have a lot of cool stories about different entrepreneurs from countries around the world and how they're using their e-residency so definitely check that out to see if any of their stories resonate with you so that is the main purpose of e-residency.

Benefits of E-residency

• Register a company 100% online
• Enter Estonia’s digital business environment
• Keep your business in the EU
• Carry your borderless business with you everywhere
• Pay and get paid using convenient online banking tools
• Expand globally from your EU base
• Go paperless with secure digital solutions
• Automate or delegate business administration
• Save time and money to spend on doing what you love
• Network with like-minded e-resident entrepreneurs
• Connect with expert service providers
• Enjoy dedicated support and resources

But what is it not here are some common misconceptions.

It doesn't give you any ability to enter the EU or enter Estonia.

E-residency status is not a travel permits.

It's not a work permit either.

If you are interested in living and working in Estonia however there is one other category.

Brand new E-residency visa so although you get a digital identity in Estonia it is not permission to travel there and it's also not an id card it also doesn't give you any legal permanent residency status or path to citizenship so that has to be really clear up front.

Let's talk process and cons though because although there are some downsides there are some definite benefits the best thing about it is that you can do everything remotely without ever having to go there so you can open your company remotely you can have an EU-based company with access to that market and then you can manage it from anywhere in the world you can also sign documents digitally so you don't have to print scan and sign anything you can just sign it online and be done with it you can also open a bank account technically although I’m going to talk about that more in a second and the other pro is that it's really affordable and the process is quite fast it's only a 100 EURO-application fee that you can fill out online.

It takes six to eight weeks to process and then you can pick up your e-resident package in upwards of 40 countries around the world so it's a really convenient really low risk entry-level option to open a company in Europe there are also no annual maintenance fees or anything like that so you just pay the fee one time the id card is good for five years and the replacement cost is the same as the 100-euro application fee it's also pretty cool it was the first program of its kind and when you become an e-resident.

You become part of this 70 000-member strong e-resident community and they even apparently have lived in-person meetups so that's pretty cool Estonia is known as quite a digitized nation they have online voting and a lot of online services for their citizens so it's a country that is really pushing the envelope and trying to innovate in this space and definitely inspiring and influencing other launching a new e-residency program and now there are more and more countries talking about how to attract remote workers and digital nomads as well as create programs to help people open companies remotely so, I think they started a trend what about the downsides well when e-residency first launched around 2014 2015 it was met with quite a lot of criticism people were saying that it was nothing more than like a pr stunt or a marketing ploy and while it may be true that Estonia got a lot of free press about this innovative novel program it's also legitimate there are a lot of people with this card and there are a lot of people operating their businesses in Estonia from anywhere so, it is a real deal despite any other benefits that the tourism board or the country might have gotten that's irrelevant the biggest downside was that it didn't provide any travel benefits or any sort of access to go to the country should you want to go there but now they have the digital nomad visa program that serves that purpose so now it's not even really a downside anymore the biggest con that I see is that since the program was implemented it hasn't worked out in practicality exactly the way people expected at the beginning especially with regard to opening a bank account remotely opening a bank account in another country is usually always a process.

There was an understanding a few years ago that if you got the resident status that it would be easy or easier or guaranteed to open a bank account but it appears that many e-residents have had problems doing that and that can be a little bit of a headache if you're trying to do business in the EU.

But actually, looked at Estonia’s e-residency website to figure out what their position was on opening a bank account there and I don't know if it was on the website before but now it definitely says clearly that e-residency status cannot be used as leverage to open a personal bank account so it's not guaranteed.

If you don’t need any special company in the EU to be able to do business or access my customers but if you are living in a developing country like India or Pakistan a country like south Africa or Argentina that has an unstable currency then it might be a really good option for you because first of all its low cost so it doesn't really cost you much time or effort to be able to do it and then you have that option should you need it and it's also good for startups and founders who want to have an official domicile in the EU so that they can raise money and get funding things like that and it also makes sense for people who don't want to travel somewhere to open a company but they just want a really easy low-cost way to do it so if you're from a non-EU country or a developing country that has limited entrepreneurial opportunities and banking options.

with the e-residency website so to apply for e-residency check out eresident.gov.ee you'll need a passport style photo a copy of your passport or national id document and the 100-euro application fee that you can pay with a credit or debit card.

If granted e-Residency, you will be invited to:

Collect e-Residency kit at location selected on your application Bring government-issued ID submitted with application Submit fingerprints.

Pick-up locations.

You must pick up your e-Residency kit at an available pick-up location within 6 months. If you do not have a pickup location in your country, you can arrange to collect the kit in another country. Please be sure your chosen pickup location is in a country or region you are legally permitted to enter. 

Australia Canberra Austria Vienna Azerbaijan Baku Belarus Minsk Belgium Brussels Canada Ottawa China Beijing Czech Republic Prague Denmark Copenhagen Egypt Cairo Estonia Narva, Pärnu Tartu,Tallinn Finland Helsinki France Paris 

Further more many location visit website .

https://e-resident.gov.ee/become-an-e-resident/