I incorporated in Estonia few years ago because of what their promo materials say. It’s a total shitshow unfortunately and while it’s true that you can do everything online, it’s not what you think. All user interfaces are straight from the 90s, only the most basic forms are in english and they want to know everything about your business while setting ridiculous limits. For example, you need to have half of your capital available always. If you end the year even with 49% of your capital, you have to submit a report how you are planning to fix the situation. This is highly limiting requirement for any startup. When you need to do anything else than submit the most basic forms, you have to fill in forms that are available only in estonian. If you need help, good luck finding a person who can serve you in english. Don’t get me wrong, estonian people are very nice and will try to help you but the language barrier is very awkward to deal with.<p>If you plan to incorporate in Estonia, make sure you hire a local accountant because you really can’t decipher their accounting requirements yourself, put the lowest amount of capital required in (2500€) and mentally prepare for overall frustrating experience.<p>I applaud Estonia for all the efforts they have put into rising from the ashes of russian control but if I knew back then what I know now and had to make a choice now where to incorporate, I would skip Estonia.
I'm still unclear of the benefits.<p>Could anyone shed some light: What can we do with it that we can't do now? Let's say that I'm a solo entrepreneur or small SaaS owner from a developing country (e.g from Asia, Africa or LatAm) -- basically, typical HNer who's <i>not</i> from Europe/US.
I'm within the 1st year of e-residency + incorporation.<p>Here're a few of my experiences.<p>1. Setup is not as straightforward as they claim, but it's still quite easy. It compares well to what I've seen in France (LegalStart, CCIs, etc.) and the USA (Clerky/C-corp, Delaware, etc.). Actually there's no (printed) paper work because all is digitally signed with your e-residency card—only that is a big plus.<p>2. Running the company is similar to a C-corp but it's 10x easier than an SAS in France—where you've to register for, know about, and manage nearly 10 different tax agenda. It's also 2x to 5x cheaper to run than in USA and France.<p>3. However, it's true that banks are lagging a little behind but to their defence they face AML/KYC requirements, and e-residency is a lot of randomness for them—needless to say (?) that banks are risk averse.<p>For comparison, note that Clerky was launched in 2013 to streamline the legal paperwork for C-corps when e-residency started in 2014. And see how long it took before Stripe partners with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) for its Alpha program.<p>- So I feel like banks do a good job although there's room for improvement.<p>4. Internationalisation of some institution's websites has bugs—basically your preference for english is reset to Estonian once in a while, but most of it is translated in English (and Russian and Finish?).<p>5. Some institution's websites are old looking but it's not worst than in Delaware or in France. So far, institution's websites are quite clear. For comparison: when paperwork in e-Estonia is done with digital signing, in 2017 I still had to (surface) mail or fax documents to France's and Delaware's institutions, sometimes with credit card number written in clear, or with a check enclosed—this is prehistory.<p>6. For the legal setup and accounting, I use LeapIN. So far they're very professional, their website has an extensive Q&A and knowledge-based section—that I read. Their pricing segments are clear. And they seem to have a growth mindset—reach out for more advice on how to onboard and their price.<p>7. Money-wise I was unaware of the 50% social capital requirement left on your account at the end of the fiscal year (note that it also exists in France and, by inference, probably in some other European countries)—maybe they could communicate more on that, it's not nice to figure that out later.<p>- Still, so far I feel I've got value for my money and I can pull out if needed—no commitment which isn't the case of many B2B SaaS solutions with long term contracts (if we compare).
I signed up and got my ID delivered to my local embassy ... but they never replied when I tried arrange the appointment to pick it up (I got heaps of "your ID is in the embassy!" reminders via email however). Oh well, I'm sure it's useful if you manage to get it.<p>Anyone picking their ID up in Vienna have a different experience?
The article claims that Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and French PM Emmanuel Macron are Estonian “e-residents”. Has anyone seen any non-Estonian reports which support this claim?
- Are there any good (easy to use) payment processors available in Estonia (like Stripe) ?<p>- Is your startup governed by specific laws for data privacy etc.<p>- What about legal disputes, arbitration. How does that work for startups based out of Estonia ?
I have several friends from russia that wanted to build their startups in a global way, at least not in russia (receive and send money across borders is a nightmare - basically everyone in the country doing it illegally). And they decided to became e-residents. What's now? All their funds are blocked and accounts are closed in one day without notice.
"Estonia wants to be a role model and leader for a different way of seeing the world: a world that is more open, meritocratic and reflective of the demands—and opportunities—of the 21st century."<p>Meritocratic seems highly promoted in many circles (seems like on first glace a good idea as opposed to say, despotic), but in a meritocratic world, what happens to the dumb and/or lazy (unmeritable?) people.
> can open Estonian bank and securities accounts<p>Does anyone know how well this works in practice for US citizens?<p>I've been led to believe that FBAR requirements are so onerous that most non-US banks would rather turn away US citizens than take their business.
Does being an "e-resident" make you subject to the GDPR? So you can tell e.g. Facebook and not have to lie about your country of residence?<p>If so, I could see this becoming <i>very</i> popular over the next few years...
>Japanese prime minister Shinto Abe was the first<p>err...<p>>My e-Residency is not a passport. It’s more than a tourist visa, and far less than citizenship.<p>what? Slip that into the last paragraph? What is it exactly?
What Estonia's e-residency actually means.<p>Let's assume you have a startup and you want it to be registered in Estonia, paying taxes and using the Estonian banks for financial purposes.<p>1. With e-Residency you can't enter Estonia, you need a separate business or travel visa [1]<p>2. At present, it’s still necessary to travel to Estonia in order to apply in person for an Estonian business bank account. [2]<p>3. Good, fancy and catchy name "e-Residency" is actually an infinite loop of bureaucracy. You can't remotely open a bank account, you need to travel personally to Estonia, and you have a chance that banks will approve your application. But you can't enter Estonia with this "e-Residency" for this to happen.<p>[1] <a href="https://e-resident.gov.ee/faqs/about-e-residency/#coming-to-estonia" rel="nofollow">https://e-resident.gov.ee/faqs/about-e-residency/#coming-to-...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://medium.com/e-residency-blog/banking-for-e-residents-your-key-questions-answered-99519bb28d85" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/e-residency-blog/banking-for-e-residents-...</a><p>And this is just a little tip of the iceberg, there are a lot of articles about real experience of e-residents of how unfriendly for "e-residents" the banks in Estonia are. And without a bank you can't make your startup work.<p>Today it's just better with the same level of bureaucracy to open a company in other, more startup-friendly countries that grant a residency and have decent, more digital-friendly banks.<p>I hope something will change in near future, the main idea of e-residency is actually really amazing.
Given the date I thought this might be fake, but it seems the program is real:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Residency_of_Estonia" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Residency_of_Estonia</a><p>That said, the article also claims "Shinto" Abe was the first person to enter the program, but besides mispelling his name I can't find any other reference to him being involved with it at all.