Tractor to Estonia

Quite a lot of stories have been and will probably be on Habré about moving, I want to tell mine too.

Prologue

I am a developer, a couple of years working remotely for European and American clients. Prior to that, she worked 10 years as a developer and technical manager in Moscow.

Some time ago I was concerned with the issue of legalizing income from remote work and simultaneous relocation.

To be honest, I don’t think that my experience might be too useful to someone else, because I eventually chose a detour, with opening my company, paying taxes and wages to myself as the only employee. And further request residence permit with the help of his company. It seems that everything can be done much easier.

But I didn’t really like to hire someone (why, read below) and was fascinated by the idea of ​​“own business”.

I will clarify that it took me about a year to receive the documents.

Why Estonia

I considered the variants of Eastern Europe, because it seemed to me that 1) it was easier to move there than to Western; 2) the overall level of costs (living expenses) is lower there; 3) it is still close to Russia (it is easier to go to parents than from the States). I managed to go to Estonia only in Latvia (before that, in Eastern Europe I was nowhere at all). In Latvia, I subjectively did not like it.

Of the impressions - in Estonia more English is used (in the capital) and less Russian. In Latvia, everything is exactly the opposite, but it will be extremely reluctant to speak Russian, and very bad English (shops, cafes).

In Estonia, with me, they switched to broken Russian, when they learned that I was from Russia almost all people over 40. Those who were only 20 to 30 years old spoke English.

Tallinn liked more than Riga and I began to learn about the future prospects.

About hiring in the company

The first option that I considered was to get a job in existing companies that are engaged in client development.

In Riga, I met with a representative of one such company. He told me that he would issue me a bluecard if we agree, but he will have to pay taxes for me, so I will have to deal not only with my projects, but also with him, most likely. This is the first moment that I didn’t like very much (I guess I just lost the habit of working in this format, when they tell me what projects to do, and not I choose them. Someone will probably do this).

The second point - it seemed to me that this company was much more interested in my client than in me. Apparently for the Latvians, the Norwegian client is a synonym for a money bag, it was somehow too noticeable and I also did not like it.

Therefore, I did not consider further employment for myself in the company, and at the same time I crossed out Riga (there I was impressed by the railway station, where there were more homeless people than passengers and staff).

About e-residents

The story of Estonia began with the fact that I learned about e-citizenship (e-residency) and ordered myself an e-resident card. What it gives you can read here , but in general with her in the future it was much easier. I ordered this card via the Internet, and she came to me at the St. Petersburg embassy a couple of months later.

With this card, in principle, it was already possible to remotely open a company (and now it seems like a bank account is already possible). But I still went to Tallinn myself, firstly, to see if I didn’t like it there either, and secondly, I found a company that “provides assistance in starting a business” and I wanted to meet them in person.

About trips

I traveled to Riga and Tallinn by train from St. Petersburg, which is quite convenient. In such trains there are a lot of interesting people who have nothing to do with IT. I noticed that many of them thought that everything was fine in Russia, but did not want to go back.

On one of these trips, I met a girl who I later hired as an accountant to my company. There are many companies in Tallinn that can keep accounting records for a small amount of money (about 35 euros / month), but for me a personal approach was important. She then consulted me quite a lot on documents related not only to accounting, but also to the actual move, so here I think I was just lucky.

Regular tax or legal advice costs 120 euros / hour for example.

About opening a company and a bank account

About how to open a company in Estonia, I first read in this topic . It was reported that it is theoretically possible to open a company remotely (if you have an e-resident card), but you need a legal address.

As a result, I turned to a company that provides a legal address and it also helps in registering a company.

For this, I arrived in Tallinn, it seems at that time it was impossible to do without a physical visit. Now, as I understand it, all these actions can be performed remotely.

To be honest, the “help” of this company turned out to be especially valuable, because you still need to fill in all the questionnaires yourself, so for the most part it was a waste of money, it was enough just to buy a legal address.

Next, the company needs a checking account. To open it, the company itself must already be registered in the local registry. I first came to SEB Bank and said that I needed an account (for a person and for a legal entity). The bank was quite skeptical of my request, they said that they did not see the connection with Estonia (that is, the company opened there does not count), but they will think and they will inform me in a week.

I didn't want to wait a week, considering that my return ticket was already purchased. So I went to SwedBank and there they listened to me and said that they would discover everything, but it would cost 200 €.

About expenses

Since the main purpose of the event was to get a residence permit, the most expenses were for my newly opened company to start working in white and pay me the minimum wage and taxes.

Taxes were about 700 € each month. The minimum period of the company's work for submission of documents is 4 months, but even after the submission I did not stop paying it all, because you can check at any time. And a company that suddenly stopped working will clearly raise questions.

That is, in total, we had to pay 6x700 € in taxes, 6x1000 € in salary. All this money should have been officially credited to the company's account.

Compared to this, the remaining expenses were not so significant: the opening of the company (€ 120), tax advice (another 120, this could not be done). Actually filing documents for a residence permit - € 120 at the embassy in Moscow. Plus tickets for trips back and forth and payment of rental housing.

An accountant / lawyer helped me in the execution of documents in one person, which I mentioned above, otherwise it would have cost even more money.

About time

The first time I came to Estonia was in February, and I was informed of the decision to issue a residence permit in December. In principle, it was possible a little faster. Probably now if I did the same thing, I could reduce the time of the month by two.

Pro filing for residence permit

To submit a petition, I needed all the documents about the company's activities, my resume and information about my close relatives.

I brought all this pile of documents to the Moscow embassy and said there that they would consider a maximum of two months. But then it turned out that this was not true - after two months nothing happened.

I called the embassy, ​​where I was told to contact the Tallinn police department (they also deal with documents) directly. In the police department, as it seemed to me, nobody looked at all my documents before my call, because after the call, they sent me a bunch of additional questions.

After they collected a commission on my case (in absentia). I understood this because they were very embarrassed by my company's lack of Estonian clients.

Total

In the end, this was probably not the most rational way, but at least it worked. If you just want to move, this is a long way without a guaranteed result. It is much easier to simply hire someone and get a blue card.