Estonia · Work authorisation

Startup Visa

Issued by Startup Estonia's Startup Committee decides the endorsement; the Police and Border Guard Board or the Estonian mission responsible for your place of residence decides the visa and residence permit that follow it. It is checked against conditions rather than scored, so the question is whether you meet each one, not how many points you gather.

Basis
Checklist
Steps
6
Possible outcomes
3
Last checked
2026-08-09

Conditions

What this permit
asks of you.

Which desk decides

The authority, exactly

This route is only open to founders who are not nationals of the EU/EEA or Switzerland — an EU/EEA or Swiss national does not need a visa or residence permit to relocate to Estonia in the first place.

The procedure

6 steps,
in the order they happen.

Prepare your documents

  1. If you hold, or are weighing, Estonian e-Residency, be clear about what it does before you rely on it: e-Residency's digital ID lets you set up and run an Estonian company from anywhere, entirely online. The Police and Border Guard Board states plainly that it does not grant the right to reside in Estonia. You can be an e-resident and run an Estonian company for years without ever having the right to move here — this visa route, not e-Residency, is what gives you that right.The two applications are governed by separate rules and decided separately; having one says nothing about your eligibility for the other.
  2. Apply to Startup Estonia's Startup Committee for endorsement of your company as a startup — a business unit that is starting operations around an innovative, repeatable business model with strong global growth potential and that contributes significantly to Estonia's business environment.
  3. Show you have at least €800 in personal funds for every month you plan to spend in Estonia.

Get your qualification assessed

  1. The Startup Committee reviews your application and decides within 10 working days. Endorsement is what unlocks the rest of this route.Startup Estonia states that an endorsed founder is not subject to Estonia's immigration quota, is not held to a minimum salary requirement, and does not need the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund's permission to be hired — three conditions that do apply to the general residence permit for employment.

Register and start working

  1. With the Committee's endorsement, apply for the long-stay (D) visa on the ground of startup entrepreneurship, at the Estonian mission responsible for your place of residence or at a Police and Border Guard Board service point.
  2. Once your company is registered in Estonia, apply for the temporary residence permit for entrepreneurship to stay and run it beyond the visa's first year.Processing the residence permit takes up to two months; the Police and Border Guard Board sets its exact validity, up to a maximum of 5 years.

Cost and time

What it costs,
and how long the authority says it takes.

Fees

Long-stay (D) visa fee
€120
Temporary residence permit for entrepreneurship
Not published on the pages we checked for this specific permit — confirm the current state fee with the Police and Border Guard Board before applying

Timeframes

Startup Committee decision
10 working days
Long-stay visa validity
Up to 365 days within 12 consecutive months
Temporary residence permit for entrepreneurship
Up to 5 years; processing takes up to 2 months

Published processing times, not a prediction about your case.

Both halves together

Guides that use this permit.

Each one takes a profession into Estonia and runs the recognition branch and the authorisation branch side by side, including what your country of qualification adds.

Evidence

Every claim on this page, and where it came from.

6 official pages, each with the jurisdiction it speaks for and the date a human last opened it. The oldest is 2026-08-09, and that is the date this page is only as fresh as.

Is this the right permit for you?

That depends on where you qualified.

The planner compares every route Estonia opens to your country of qualification, and adds the recognition branch when your profession has one.

Check my path →All Estonia permits