Dear current and future e-Residents,
Hello from Tallinn! The big day has finally arrived — we have just launched the e-Residency online application site!
As of this morning, it is now possible to apply for e-Residency at e-resident.gov.ee (https://e-estonia.com/e-residents/about/?utm_source=newsletter4&utm_medium=email&utm_content=1&utm_campaign=eresident ) anywhere in the world. Once your application is approved, just one face-to-face meeting is required to collect the card!
To begin, visit e-resident.gov.ee (https://e-estonia.com/e-residents/about/?utm_source=newsletter4&utm_medium=email&utm_content=1&utm_campaign=eresident ) , fill in the online application, upload your photo and a
photo of your identity document, state your reason for applying and pay a 50 euro state fee. We ask for your application motivation to have an overview of our customers (you!). We also want to manage the risks and conduct the necessary background checks to prevent digital identity misuse.
Once your application has been submitted, the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board will carry out your background check. Once your application is approved, you will be invited to your chosen pickup location to identify yourself, give fingerprints and collect your e-Resident smart ID card and card reader. The whole process should take about a month.
You can pick up the card from our foreign embassies and consulates in 34 countries around the world, or at Police and Border Guard Board service points in Estonia. Please note that the Estonian honorary consuls do not issue e-Residency and we currently do not plan to expand the number of pickup locations.
As of today e-Residents can:
- Establish an Estonian company online within a day. At the moment a physical address in Estonia is required, which may be obtained using a virtual office service provider.
- Administer the company from anywhere in the world.
- Conduct e-banking and remote money transfers. Establishing an Estonian bank account currently requires one in-person meeting at the bank, and is at the sole discretion of our banking partners.
- Access online payment service providers
- Declare Estonian taxes online. e-Residency does not automatically establish tax residency. To learn about taxation and to avoid double taxation please consult a tax professional.
We continue to work with the private sector and government agencies to enhance our existing services and create new programs for e-Residents. As an example, it currently requires an in-person meeting to open a bank account, or the help of virtual office providers to establish a company with a legal Estonian address. We are working hard to make these services more accessible and user-friendly soon. Stay tuned.
Our government is developing e-Residency like a startup. We launched it fast and agile, and we are constantly working to improve and extend this revolutionary program. e-Residency is now in a public beta phase: everybody is invited to apply and help us cater it best to you, the new e-Estonian — a new kind of digital and global citizen. For that, we depend on your feedback and guidance.
Since the issue of security has recently been raised, I feel that it is important to tell you about it as well. A digital identity itself does not bring along new risks, such as money laundering. Instead, it makes existing risks more visible and manageable as digital footprints are easily traceable. We have extensive logging and fraud analysis, which we make use of at our discretion and on reasonable suspicion. We also thoroughly check the background of prospective e-Residents to make sure we can trust them as future members of the Estonian e-Society.
Estonia is known worldwide for its advanced cybersecurity competence, and we take good care to mitigate the possible risks of e-Residency. The e-Resident ID itself as well as the services are built on state-of-the-art technological solutions, such as 2048-bit public key encryption. Procedures and practices are in place to ensure the safety of e-Residents’ data and that limit possibilities for misuse.
Thank you for the incredible amount of positive feedback you have already given us — and please keep writing! We have learned that people from around the world view e-Residency as an opportunity to fulfil their dreams, venture across digital borders, and free themselves from corporate bureaucracy. Our long term vision is to offer to every world citizen a government-issued digital identity and the opportunity to run a trusted company online, unleashing the world’s entrepreneurial potential.
The e-Residency application portal was officially launched this morning at Nordic Digital Day, a one-day conference about Nordic ICT innovations and reforms held during ICT Week 2015 in Tallinn, Estonia.
Please find more information at e-resident.gov.ee (https://e-estonia.com/e-residents/about/?utm_source=newsletter4&utm_medium=email&utm_content=1&utm_campaign=eresident ) and follow us on Twitter @e_Residents (https://twitter.com/e_Residents)
We look forward to welcoming you as an e-Resident!
Kaspar Korjus, Program Director
and the e-Residency Team
Tallinn, Estonia
