who is eligible for e-⁠residency?

Some entrepreneurs and businesses are better suited to e-⁠Residency than others —  here are some real case studies to illustrate

"Am I eligible for e-⁠Residency?"

We’re frequently asked this by prospective e-⁠residents. And the answer to this seemingly simple question very much depends on individual circumstances and needs.

E-⁠Residency is a government-issued digital identity provided to foreigners, so that they can verify themselves securely online. With their digital ID, e-⁠residents can access diverse public and private Estonian e-services, register an EU-based company, and run it remotely from anywhere in the world.

Over 110,000 people from over 170 countries have applied for e-⁠Residency in its 10 year history. E-⁠residents have founded 30,000 companies. While our e-⁠residents are as diverse as any global community, we do see a few common value-drivers behind their decisions to take up e-⁠Residency, like location (or lack of), business type, industry, and personal goals.

The e-Residency team has been clear since the beginning of the programme in 2014 that e-Residency suits certain business types and objectives, sectors, and geographies better than others. Recently, we refined the programme's vision and value propositions, to better identify the advantages of e-⁠Residency and starting a business in Estonia, and who they might support.

Our vision is to be where entrepreneurs go to do business, 100% digitally and from anywhere in the world. Our four core values are:

1. making business easy at every stage,
2. doing business securely in the world's most digital country,
3. accessing opportunities for your business to thrive, and
4. connecting to the world's entrepreneurs.

To illustrate further, we thought it would be interesting to present to you some of the most suitable cases by introducing you to real life e-⁠residents.

This way, we hope we can go someway to answer the overarching, million dollar question…

Is e-⁠Residency for me?

In general, e-⁠Residency is best suited to entrepreneurs who:

• sell services or digital products online in a broad range of sectors, including IT, marketing, publishing, consulting and more,

• want to reduce bureaucracy and paperwork, in order to save time and money,

• do not have a fixed location, or

• want their business to stay in — or enter — the EU market so they can expand regionally or globally, trade in euros, access financial services or EU funding, or stay within the EU’s legal frameworks.

The three main categories of entrepreneur we see taking up e-⁠Residency are:

1. Solopreneurs: freelancers, consultants, side-hustlers or part-timers find e-⁠Residency a great way to start and run an enterprise through a limited liability company in the EU,
2. Micro-enterprises: e-⁠Residency empowers aspiring entrepreneurs wanting to test their innovative ideas at minimal cost, thanks to a supportive global network and simple, quick way of doing business digitally,
3. Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises: companies with two or more experienced founders, who want a simple way to register a company that has the potential to scale have found e-⁠Residency.

Let’s break these down a little more by considering a few common scenarios.

1. I’m based in Berlin and work full-time but also have a small side-business providing editing and translation services to a few clients around the EU. Maybe one day it will grow from a side project to my full time business.

Is e-⁠Residency for me?

Yes — you have described an extremely common setup among our e-⁠resident community. As previewed above, a host of full- and part-time freelancers, consultants, and solopreneurs provide services or digital products to clients through their Estonian companies in a variety of sectors, including IT, marketing, management consulting, coaching, publishing, and more.

Why? Because:

• it’s quick and easy to start your private limited company or OÜ
• running business fully online and remotely takes minimal time and resources
• invoicing and reporting can be automated or delegated to expert service providers (like those on the e-⁠Residency Marketplace).

These were just some of the benefits that attracted Italian e-⁠resident Mike, who builds, markets, and supports multiple SaaS products through his Estonian company. Read his story:

Additionally, setting up an OÜ now is a good way to start small and easy to grow your few invoices to a steady stream. This is how German e-⁠resident Luka grew his multilingual translation and content creation company The Happy Beavers into a global business with e-⁠Residency. Read more:

2. I’m a small business owner in the UK providing corporate coaching services, but business is doing so well I might expand in the future. I’ve recently attracted new clients based in the Nordics and Baltics. Brexit means I need to set up in the EU as running business from the UK is overly-bureaucratic and expensive and I’m looking for a more streamlined way to operate as my business expands.

Is e-⁠Residency for me?

Yes — think of Estonia as a safe haven from Brexit and e-Residency as an effective bridge between you and the EU market. You can move or keep your company in the EU and use Estonia as a digital base to expand regionally and beyond. Estonia is comparable to the UK in terms of how easy it is to set up a company online.

E-⁠Resident Priya set up her company in Estonia to avoid any ramifications from Brexit. Read more about her decision:

David and three co-directors became e-residents and registered Saher Europe in Estonia as the European arm of their security consultancy. Read their story:

Plus, even entrepreneurs with a fixed location quickly find that running their digital business out of Estonia reduces bureaucracy and allows for more efficiency. An Estonian company will be a recognised business form for your Nordic, Baltic and EU clients and a great vehicle with which to expand into these regions further.

3. I have no fixed address and instead travel around the world staying and working in different places for 3–6 months. I already have a successful digital marketing agency that I co-direct with my business partner out of the US but we’re thinking of setting up in the EU too as we’ve just won a great contract with a new client there.

Is e-⁠Residency for me?

Yes — e-⁠Residency is highly suited to people like you, i.e. location-independent entrepreneurs or digital nomads. Company registration and setup is quick and easy, administration is minimal, and you can carry your business in your pocket with you while you travel.

E-⁠resident and German entrepreneur Kirsten Meisinger founded her strategic marketing business SEO SEAL so she could work anywhere. Read Kirsten's story:

Multi-director companies require all directors to become e-⁠residents before you establish the legal entity. Once it’s set up though, experience how seamless remote business management can be regardless of where each of you happen to be at any moment.

Global marketing consulting company Mansiontech OÜ is co-directed by e-⁠residents Georg, from Austria, and Ian, from Brazil. Despite working in very different time zones, the founders manage the company remotely thanks to e-⁠Residency. Read their story:

4. I am a tech startupper with a new product I want to test. I'm currently based in Spain, but it's difficult to find a good incubator and seed funding to start building my MVP. I've heard Estonia has a great startup ecosystem.

Is e-⁠Residency for me?

Yes—Estonia has built an efficient and entrepreneur-friendly business environment with minimal red tape, a competitive tax system, and innovative regulations. Compared to Spain, Estonia offers a much more streamlined business experience and opportunities to test products at an early stage.

Thanks to built-in incentives for startups and small businesses to scale, Estonia has become a magnet for startups. It's proud to have supported the creation and growth of 10 unicorns, the highest number per capita in the EU. Estonia is the birthplace of globally recognised unicorns like Wise, Bolt, Pipedrive, and Skype. Due to their success, more and more foreign founders are confident in testing their moonshot ideas in Estonia.

People like the co-founders of Estonia’s newest e-⁠resident-founded unicorn Glia:

In Estonia, a lively angel investing scene has developed in the last 10 years to support pre-seed, seed and early stage startups. Many of these investors are successfully exited founders of the famous unicorns mentioned above. Just like Estonian founders, e-⁠residents with Estonian companies can access private investors, accelerator and incubator programmes. 

Fabrice Amalan founder and CEO of PayQin, and an e-⁠resident originally from the Ivory Coast found healthy growth opportunities in Estonia:

Read more about Fabrice and PayQin:

5. I am an entrepreneur currently based in Ukraine experienced in marketing. I have clients in the EU so need to operate in euros and they would also prefer to deal with a company based in the EU. Plus I am hoping to have better access to banking and payment services.

Is e-⁠Residency for me?

Yes — there are many entrepreneurs from Ukraine or neighbouring CIS countries operating similar businesses selling digital products and services with the help of e-⁠Residency.

Ukrainian e-⁠residents like Alex Dzyubenko, CEO and cofounder of Estonian-based business Volumo, the new generation electronic music store for pro DJs. Read more:

Having an Estonian company opens up the range of financial services and business tools available to you. It also means you are operating your business in an open business environment and within the EU’s legal frameworks. It will also be easier to trade in euros, a convenient and stable currency for clients, and more easily make payments within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). Estonia’s digital infrastructure, as well as almost all private services, can be accessed in Russian or English (or Estonian if you’re a talented linguist!), so you’re likely to find it easy to use all of these services in a language familiar to you.

These were many of the reasons that PRNEWS.IO was founded by Ukrainian e-⁠resident Alexander in 2018. Read Alexander’s story:

It’s important to point out that the above examples are not exhaustive. Other business types and situations may have good reasons to operate in Estonia with e-⁠Residency.

To determine who is eligible for e-⁠Residency, context matters

In addition to your business plans, it’s key to look at other more systemic or context-specific factors, like:

• Legal and trade barriers, like taxation, customs, banking regulations, movement of goods and logistics, currency, etc
• Contextual factors relating to your personal circumstances, such as your location, languages spoken, or criminal record
• Geography: if you’re based in a country where there is no card pickup point, a lack of experienced service providers, or barriers to banking or taxation, e-⁠Residency may not be suitable for you

And finally, let’s cover the people who definitely WON’T BENEFIT from e-⁠Residency:

• People who want to avoid paying tax: e-⁠Residency is not a tax residency nor does it override existing international tax rules so all entrepreneurs must fairly pay their taxes where they are owed.
• People seeking citizenship or the right to travel or reside in Estonia or the EU: E-⁠Residency is not a travel permit, visa or physical residency status for Estonia or the EU
• People with criminal intentions: the e-⁠Residency digital ID is a privileged status and secure means of access to Estonia’s public e-services and transparent business environment. All applicants receive background checks by the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board. You cannot use e-⁠Residency to hide your business interests because data about shareholders, owners and taxation is public.
• People who are unable to obtain international business banking accounts because they live within a jurisdiction categorised as ‘high risk and non-cooperative’ by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), or otherwise sanctioned for international banking and finance.