Thinking about Estonian’s e-Residency

I was in Tallinn, Estonia most of this week for MozRetreat. Tallinn was a wonderful place and surprised me no end.

Listening to a talk about Estonia e-residency in Tallinn #mozretreat https://t.co/d9hQNsrJnL
Wondering about the benefits as a non business

— Ian Forrester (@cubicgarden) April 25, 2017

On the first full day we had a Alex Wellman who filled us all in on Estonian’s e-Residency program (one which I wrote about a while ago). I was certainly interested and it was great to get the full details and answers to my personal questions.

Generally its mainly setup for businesses and freelancers wanting to work/trade within the EU. For myself theres few reasons to take part in the program but its highly likely after considering everything, I may go ahead and do it, mainly for these reasons.

• Being slightly tied to the EU as the UK leaves
• A verified digital identy useable to sign legal documents
• Beta testing a truly digital redidency/citizenship system (exciting!)
• Not having to give up my british citizenship
• Freelancing support within the EU if my career takes a turn
• There maybe a chance to setup a bank account in the EU in the near future

The Alex Wellman made some good points but ultimately its a bit of a leap into the unknown with the chance of more advantages coming in years to come.

Being in the UK, I can do almost everything online and then do the interview and pick up my new digital identity in the Estonian Embassy in London.

Its seems all worth while for 100 euros, form filling and interviews.

Updated… I’ve applied…

I just hope the photos I sumbmitted were good enough for the process.