Estonia Immigration News: The long awaited “Digital Nomad Visa” of Estonia became available for foreigners in August 2020. The parliament of Estonia voted in early June to amend immigration laws and launch a new digital nomad visa. Finally, the government of Estonia has officially announced the launch of new visa, it opened for applications the following month. As Estonia is a member of Schengen zone so Digital Nomad visa holders can go to other schengen countries without need of any visa.
At launch, Estonia proposed an annual cap of around 1,800 digital nomad visas. The visa holders can work either for a foreign employer or freelancer. The target group of new digital nomad is e-residency holders who currently need to obtain a tourist visa or other type of visa when they want to enter Estonia to manage their remote business. The new digital nomad visa would allow e-residents to enter Estonia and work to support their remote business. Besides e-residency holders, other people can also apply for digital nomad visa without obtaining e-residency. [Read about: Estonia e-residency]
Length of Digital Nomad visa:
Foreigners can get digital nomad visa for a short period of maximum up to 90 days and also for long period maximum up to 1 year. Applicants must show a minimum income of €4,500 net per month.
Eligible countries:
At launch during the pandemic, eligibility was initially limited to applicants living in Schengen/EU countries and the United Kingdom; the visa is now open to applicants of all nationalities. Applicants are allowed to submit application from abroad as well as inside Estonia. Tourist can enter Estonia and then apply for digital nomad visa without exit.
Eligibility:
Applicants must be under their home country employment contract, hold shares in or provide services primarily to foreign companies or hold shares in a company registered in Estonia to qualify for this visa. Freelancers must have mostly foreign-based clients to qualify for this visa, though the original bill did not spell out this requirement.
Local sponsorship:
Applications are now made directly at the nearest Estonian Embassy (processing up to 30 days); the originally proposed authorized-intermediary sponsorship model was dropped.