The Estonian e-residency programme, together with a group of business service providers, will compensate the relevant state fees to all Ukrainian citizens who apply for e-residency and establish a private limited company in Estonia over the course of this year.
The Estonian e-residency programme, launched in December 2014, provides foreign nationals secure access to digital services offered within the Estonian e-governance ecosystem. The e-residents are effectively the digital residents of Estonia – they have an ID card that ensures access to digital services, but the e-residency status does not give them right to permanently live or work in Estonia.
“Due to the war in Ukraine, its people are facing an economic crisis. To date, almost five million refugees have fled from Ukraine to neighbouring countries, including entrepreneurs and freelancers. Since Estonia is the only country in the world that offers foreign nationals a special programme for setting up and running their businesses online, we have decided that it is our duty to help the Ukrainians,” Lauri Haav, the managing director of the e-residency programme, said.
The Estonian e-residency programme will reimburse the application fees, amounting to a maximum of €130, to all Ukrainians who have applied for e-residency since 24 February 2022, and to those who apply for the remainder of this year.
Nine companies have also joined the campaign: Magrat, e-Residency Hub, XOLO, 1Office, Companio, SuccessHub, Thompson & Stein, Enty and eFinance. If the Ukrainian e-residents decide to set up a company in Estonia through one of these service providers, the new e-residents will have their company establishment fees – €265 – paid by the chosen service provider.
Estonia currently has over 5,200 e-residents form Ukraine, with every third of them setting up a company in Estonia. To date, Estonia has welcomed 90,000 e-residents who have established around 20,000 new companies.
