Is e-Residency a good solution for me?

We're often asked what types of businesses can be run as an e-resident. In some cases, people even share their business plans or ideas with us and ask, "Is e-Residency the right solution for me?" 

The answer depends on individual circumstances. We recommend starting by checking your citizenship to ensure you're eligible to apply for e-Residency. Next, consider your country of residence, as this can affect your access to business banking or payment services. Once these aspects are clear, you can focus on the type of business you plan to run. 

E-Residency if a good solution for

• freelancers, consultants or digital nomads; 
• tech-driven businesses looking for a trusted, EU-based jurisdiction to launch or scale globally;
• businesses that deliver services remotely - such as marketing, design, IT, legal, or financial services; 
• e-Commerce businesses; 
• non-EU founders entering the EU market; 
• remote-first companies with distributed teams; 
• investors and holding companies; 
• researchers; 
• people, who don't live in Estonia but have a connection to Estonia (work, relatives, real-estate, etc). 

The business cases share several common characteristics: the need for location-independent business management, a global or EU-based customer base, and a preference for streamlined, online administrative processes.

Many also benefit from the ability to scale without a physical presence, gain credibility through operating within an EU jurisdiction, and access to EU business infrastructure, such as banking, payment services, and legal frameworks.

Entrepreneurs dealing with physical goods have to consider more regulations, for example, import and export rules for the goods. This may mean additional costs for consultation and administration activities.

No need to be intimidated by it though. In Estonia, we have many companies offering consulting and other business services with good value. Many of them are listed on our Marketplace. A good resource also to learn about doing business in Europe is Your Europe portal.

When e-Residency may not be a good solution

• Your business operates only in your country of residence. If your customer base and business activities are entirely domestic, e-Residency may not offer clear benefits. In such cases, your company may be considered to have a permanent establishment (PE) in your home country and may be taxed and regulated locally; 
• You are looking for a tax optimization solution. E-residents are responsible for understanding and complying with tax laws in both Estonia and their country of residency, and must determine tax residency based on real business activity; 
• You need a personal bank account in Estonia. Estonian banks assess connection to Estonia and physical residency when considering whether to extend their services; 
• You require access to traditional business loans or local banking as a new company. As traditional banks wish to see a strong connection to Estonia (customers, business partners, or other strong connection), it is advisable to first become operational using fintech solutions and when a strong connection to Estonia is establish, apply for a traditional bank account if needed.  
• You wish to relocate to Estonia or EU. E-Residency does not grant your the right of entry or residency in Estonia. If as a business owner, you need to relocate employees or yourself to Estonia to grow your business, read our Live and Work in Estonia article. 

Statistics

1/3 of of e-residents register their company in Estonia within the first 6 months. Other e-residents may take longer to register their company or may have applied for different reasons, such as needing access to Estonian e-services. 

Here's a graph of field of activity of e-resident established companies.

More statistics is available at our dashboard. 

E-residents stories

Sometimes to understand the value for yourself, it's better to read and hear from other "customers".

• We have many stories written by e-residents in our blog. There you can filter stories by regions, business fields or objective. 

• We have a Company List. This product was developed to give e-residents a chance to promote their company and find customers and business partners. We aim to add features to the company list near future.  You can use it now to browse, what kind of companies have e-residents established. 
• We have envoys and community leaders. They are expert in their fields and successful entrepreneurs. They often host events for the community around the world and foster connections with media, prospective e-residents and also represent e-residents with policymakers. 
• And you can reach out to fellow e-residents in social media.