Talk:E-Residency of Estonia

February 2015
This article was created mostly on the basis of pre-existing Estonian article. Please help me find international (preferrably English) sources that would be more convenient for the readers, in place of (or at least in addition to) the sources in Estonian. At the moment, I just don't have time to do a more thorough research. Some sources, of course, cannot be replaced but I think it might be relevant to sum the issues raised in Estonian media about the project to show light on its possible further development - it is quite natural that e-residency has currently more in-depth coverage in Estonian press, but its international coverage is constantly improving. --Oop (talk) 19:25, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Also, it might be wise to find additional suitable categories. --Oop (talk) 19:28, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Yeah, those things are on my to-do list. CerealKillerYum (talk) 10:43, 13 July 2016 (UTC)

Backup of old copy
E-residency of Estonia (or virtual residency) is a status by which non-residents can gain a secure digital identity issued by Estonia, similar to those that are provided to permanent residents and citizens of Estonia by their ID card. This enables them to use the services provided by Estonian state agencies and private sector connected usually to the ID card. Estonia established e-residency on December 1, 2014. The first e-resident of Estonia was British journalist Edward Lucas from The Economist; the first one to gain e-residency through the usual process was Hamid Tahsildoost from United States.

As of the end of January 2015, e-residents are able to make digital signatures, encrypt documents, use Estonia's state portal eesti.ee, found enterprises in Estonia, provide reports to Estonian Tax and Customs Board and E-Business Register, fill Estonian tax declarations on the Internet, and use Estonian online banking systems. It is thought that e-residency might be most useful for the entrepreneurs, as it is customary in Estonia to provide services and paperwork online, registering a new enterprise can be done quickly online and there is no income tax for enterprises, as long as the profits are not distributed, see Taxation in Estonia

E-residency is not equivalent to citizenship or permanent residency. It does not give the right to participate in elections, or to enter Estonia or the European Union without a visa. It has also been stated that e-residency is a privilege, not a right; therefore, Estonia will screen the applicants and reserve the right to refuse an application.

E-residents gain a digital ID card issued by the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board. Application is made online, but issuance of the card requires that the applicant visit an office of the Police and Border Guard Board in Estonia or an Estonian embassy or consulate where they can be identified physically. As the digital ID card is not an accepted travel document, it does not have the owner's photo on it.

The project of e-residency is led by Taavi Kotka, the vice chancellor of communications and state information systems in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. Although the idea of issuing ID cards to non-residents has been discussed at least from 2007 or 2008 and proposed again in 2012 by Estonian cybersecurity expert Anto Veldre, the concrete proposal ("10 million e-residents by 2025") was presented by Taavi Kotka, Ruth Annus, and Siim Sikkut on an idea contest by Estonian Development Foundation in 2014. The project was initiated with the prize money from the contest. It is developed by a state-owned foundation, Enterprise Estonia.

The leader of the project, Taavi Kotka has stated that while the further goal of the project would be to gain millions of e-residents, its practical purpose would be to increase the number of active enterprises in Estonia. For that, it will be important that private sector would develop concrete services on the legal and technical platform provided by e-residency, while the state would continue developing the legal framework according to the needs of the enterprises. It has also been discussed in Estonian media that e-residency could be used to spread knowledge about Estonian culture online to develop cultural export. By January 18, 2015, there were applications from 225 countries, most of them from Finland (224), Russia (109), Latvia (38), the United States (34) and Great Britain (22).

In general e-residency project has gained positive reviews in the media, being recognized for its innovativeness and potential. Estonia's former Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi has noted that it is yet unclear how e-residency would bring capital to Estonia. It has also been warned by the legal experts that e-residency might create some risk of double taxation, as this is a completely new legal status that has not been considered in the framework of existing international agreements to avoid double taxation.

There has been international interest in different countries, with the issue being covered by media in the United States (The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica ), United Kingdom (The Guardian,  Wired UK ), Finland (Helsinki Times ), Australia (ABC ), Italy (Wired.it ) etc. In neighbouring Finland, it has elicited some fear that e-residency might give Finnish enterprises an urge to move to Estonia.

CerealKillerYum (talk) 18:14, 13 July 2016 (UTC)

Language of business for e-residents of Estonia
The article would be improved if it answered some questions about doing business in Estonia, since that is the explicitly stated objective of the e-Residency program.

What is the language of business for e-residents who might choose to start up an entrepreneurial enterprise in Estonia? Other questions come to mind as well, but until one knows if one must know (or pay for translation services into) Estonian, or which subset of global languages might be useful, it seems the article leaves much outside of a full encyclopedic treatment of the subject. Cheers. N2e (talk) 01:57, 22 August 2016 (UTC)

Anything similar in ANY other country in the world?
So for example if I want to use health care system in Singapore, how can i get blood test results online? 91.155.24.127 (talk) 09:13, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

E-residency and GDPR?
Are there any sources that cover whether e-residents are covered by European privacy law? It seems like national governments have a lot of discretion in how they implement and enforce the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Personal Data Protection Act only mentions "natural persons". -- https://www.riigiteataja.ee/en/eli/523012019001/consolide DMarti (talk) 17:49, 15 June 2023 (UTC)