the e-⁠Residency team is here to support our community

An open letter from e-⁠Residency’s Managing Director to our e-⁠residents and other community members

Dear e-⁠residents and friends,

I hope that you and your family are staying safe and healthy wherever you happen to be in the world. You are probably receiving a lot of messages like this so, in true Estonian fashion, I will try to keep this one short and to the point.

The e-⁠Residency team is here to support our community of e-⁠residents and other stakeholders. While this has always been the case and will continue to be for a long time, it is especially relevant right now as we experience together the global public health crisis caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

We want to empower our community to help and support each other during this tough time. If you anticipate financial difficulty or other challenges for your e-resident business as a result of the crisis, please contact our support team and we will try and help in any way we can.

Estonia is not immune to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, but the fact that we are an almost fully digital society with over 99% of government services available online, helps us weather the storm a bit easier, as also mentioned in a recent article in the New York Times.

Nearly 12,000 of you have established companies in Estonia that can be managed completely online from anywhere and we hope this means one less worry in your life at the moment. Estonia’s digital e-governance services continue to operate without disruption. So have peace of mind that you can still use your digital ID card to register a company, digitally sign and encrypt documents, and file tax returns.

Plus, given that many of you are long-term remote entrepreneurs yourselves, we invite you to share your knowledge and experience of working remotely by giving your ideas in the comments section below.

If you are an e-⁠resident who hasn’t started a company yet, it might be something to consider as having your own business, even as a side project, can help provide a small bit of stability and certainty in these confusing times. We are here to support you in your journey to entrepreneurship, which might provide you with additional income in the future as well as potentially some extra purpose in life.

But don’t take my word for it — read the stories of some of our inspiring e-⁠residents who have started successful companies thanks to e-⁠Residency.

If you have been thinking about starting a business with e-Residency and are ready to take the plunge, you will find ample information and resources to explain the process on our website e-resident.gov.ee and at our Knowledge Base. I also recommend visiting our Marketplace of service providers to find an expert to guide you through the process.

Please be aware that if you’ve recently applied for e-⁠Residency or renewed your card, Estonian embassies and other pickup locations remain open so it is still possible to collect e-⁠Residency digital ID kits. We also welcome applications for e-⁠Residency, including renewals, but ask for your patience as there may be slight delays with the process.

Thank you for being members of Estonia’s digital nation and for your continued trust in us.

Stay healthy and look after your loved ones in this difficult time.

Together, we will get through this.

Best wishes,

Ott Vatter

Managing Director, on behalf of the whole e-⁠Residency team