A look at relocation to Estonia from the inside out - pros, cons and pitfalls
Once, Parallels decided to meet those of its employees who had already worked for the company for a long time and did not want to change it, but at the same time wanted to change their location to be closer to the West, have an EU passport and be more mobile and independent in their movements.
So the idea was born to expand the geography of its presence and open a Parallels R&D center in Estonia.
Initially, various options were considered, located not so far from Moscow: Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia. In Estonia's favor, almost half of the country spoke Russian, and Moscow can be reached by any night train. In addition, Estonia has a very advanced model of e-government, which greatly simplifies all organizational aspects, and real work is being done to attract investors, start-ups and other promising projects.
')
So the choice has been made. And now - about the relocation to Tallinn through the mouths of our employees, who tell us what their expectations were met and which are not, and what initially unpredictable difficulties they had to face.
Alexander Vinogradov, Cloud Team Frontend-developer:
I moved alone, without a car, without animals - the easiest case to move. Everything went very smoothly. The most difficult part, perhaps, was the process of dismissal from the Moscow office - a lot of different pieces of paper had to be signed :) During the paperwork and the search for housing in Tallinn, the local relocation agency hired by our company helped us a lot, so all that was required of me was have documents in hand and be at the right time in the right place to meet with the relocation manager. I came across the only surprise at the bank when we were asked for a little more documents than was previously required. But the guys quickly orientated, and after a short wait, all the necessary documents and a residence permit were in my hands.
I can’t remember that for all the time I moved here I encountered any difficulties. Maybe something was, but apparently, I have not yet realized that this was a difficulty)
What pleasantly surprised you? First of all, the silence around was pleased. The silence is such that at first I could not fall asleep due to ringing in my ears. I live in the very center, but the road to the airport by tram is 10-15 minutes, to the port and bus station 10 minutes on foot - all trips around Europe have become much easier and faster. Sometimes you don’t even have time to realize that you were somewhere far away on a trip, because after an airplane or a ferry you literally immediately find yourself in your apartment.
The main difference between Moscow and Tallinn is the rhythm of life and the atmosphere. Moscow is a huge metropolis, and Tallinn is a quiet European city. In Moscow, sometimes you already come to work tired because of the long journey and clogged cars. In Tallinn, my journey from apartment to work is 10-15 minutes in the half-empty bus lounge - “door to door”.
I will not say that I suffered greatly from great stress in Moscow, but if you can live without it, then why not? In addition, the pluses described by me a little higher came. I guessed that something like this would happen, but what would be so good - I could not even think. The second moment is working - I became closer to the people with whom I worked closely while in the Moscow office, but then the distance was much greater, now the interaction process has improved significantly, which I am very pleased.
Small life hacks: when looking for housing, pay attention to its novelty - in old houses you can stumble upon the unexpectedly very high cost of utilities. It takes about a month to get a local bank card, and here - never an advertisement - the Tinkoff card simplified my life. He paid her and took cash without commission this month.
Everything described above is just a personal opinion. Come and make your own.
Sergey Malykhin, Program Manager
Actually, the move itself was relatively easy.
Moreover, to a large extent, thanks to the support provided by the company.
A very competent step on the part of Parallels was to hire relocation specialists in Estonia - the company Move My Talent - who helped us a lot at first: provided the required information, conducted seminars for us and family members, delivered lectures - about Estonia, Estonians, local mentality, culture, the intricacies of local laws and official procedures, the peculiarities of the urban areas of Tallinn, etc.), went with us to public places and helped to draw up documents, drove to view apartments for rent.
In Moscow, almost all of the paperwork (work visa to Estonia, medical insurance, etc.) was done by HR Parallels employees.
We didn’t even have to go to the embassy - they just took our passports and returned them with a six-month work visa in a couple of days.
We ourselves could only make the final decision, pack our things and go.
Perhaps, just the decision was given the most difficult.
In fact, at first I didn’t even want to go, because by nature I am a fairly conservative person who does not like sudden changes.
I hesitated for a long time, but in the end I decided to treat this as an experiment and the possibility of shaking my life a little.
At the same time, the main advantage I saw was the opportunity to break out of the frantic Moscow rhythm of life and move on to a more measured step.
From what was not easy and surprised, the disgusting quality of local medicine unpleasantly surprised me. Moreover, equipment purchased with European grants is most often very good. But not enough specialist doctors. Sometimes a specialist doctor paid for by the local health insurance fund (Estonian compulsory medical insurance) has to wait 3-4 months. And sometimes you have to wait for a paid admission for months. Good specialists strive to get a job in Western Europe (mainly in neighboring Finland and Sweden). Remain either old (age) or mediocre (qualification). Paid medical services are quite expensive. Medicine in Moscow seems to me to be significantly better and more affordable.
Another problem for me was the originality and leisurelyness of the local service: from online stores, to car repair shops, kitchen manufacturers, furniture sales, etc.
In general, they are at the level that was in Moscow in the early 2000s. If you compare with the level of service in Moscow or St. Petersburg now (even with all the known shortcomings of the latter), the comparison will clearly not be in Estonia's favor.
Well, here's an example: I had to fix the headlights in the car.
I turned to the local Opel official, explained that I want to sign up for the diagnosis and repair of headlights, and at the same time do the scheduled maintenance.
I handed over the car. Without waiting for the call by the end of the working day, I call them back just before the closing time - they say: “lock up, gottoffo.”
I'm coming. I look through the account - there is only the amount for changing the oil in the engine. I ask: “and the headlights?” In response: “farr? aah ... ah, yes! farr ... don't raptuttttt! ”Phew. And so almost everywhere. True, the situation is gradually starting to improve. Now better than it was 4 years ago.
Of the pleasant impressions - I really like the fact that Estonia is a small country and Tallinn is a relatively small city with a calm / leisurely rhythm of life, without traffic jams. The locals, however, can argue with me (they consider Tallinn a city at a frantic pace), but when compared with Moscow, the difference is very much felt.
Much less time was spent on moving around the city. Here in Tallinn in an hour you can manage to do three orders of magnitude more things than in a day in Moscow. In Moscow, I sometimes spent up to 5 hours in total just to get to the office by car in the morning and return back in the evening. On the best days, 3 hours of pure time by car or 2 hours by public transport. In Tallinn, we get from home to office in 10-15 minutes. From one remote end of the city to the other, you can get a maximum of 30-35 minutes by car or 40 minutes by public transport. As a result, each of us had a lot of free time, which in Moscow was spent on moving around the city.
It was surprising that in Estonia you can live quite normally without knowing the Estonian language. In Tallinn, approximately 40% of the inhabitants are Russian speakers. Recently, their number has significantly increased due to immigration from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan. The older generation of Estonians (40+) in most cases still remembers the Russian language (since Soviet times).
Young people for the most part do not understand Russian, but they communicate fairly well in English. Therefore, one way or another can always be explained. True, sometimes you have to do this in sign language when the person you speak does not know either Russian or English - this happens mainly when you come across people without a higher education. We live in the Lasnamäe area (locals often call it Lasnogorsk) - this is the Tallinn region of the compact and most massive residence of Russian-speaking residents. Something like Little Odessa on Brighton Beach. Many residents “do not go to Estonia” :) and do not speak Estonian in principle. Unfortunately, this is one of the problems: if you want to study Estonian, say, in order to get a permanent residence permit after 5 years, or change your citizenship - alas, the Estonian-speaking environment that would motivate you to study and use the Estonian language, here you will not find. At the same time, the Estonian part of society is quite closed and does not really strive to let Russian speakers into their circle.
A pleasant surprise for me was free transport, in which there are not so many people (because there are not many people in Estonia) - the total population of the country is about 1 million 200 thousand. The local ones, though, are actively scolding their own transport, but he nevertheless walks very carefully, most of the buses are new and quite comfortable, and they are really free for local residents.
Surprised and pleasantly pleased with the quality of dairy products and local black bread. Local milk, sour cream, cottage cheese are really very tasty, the quality is significantly better than domestic. Black bread is also very tasty - for 4 and a half years we seem to have tried not all available varieties yet :)
The local forests, and swamps, and generally good ecology are pleasing. Most of the swamps have special educational trails: wooden flooring that you can walk along (sometimes they are wide enough even to walk with a pram). The swamps are very beautiful. As a rule, 4G Internet is available everywhere (even in the center of swamps). On many educational trails in the swamps, there are posts with a QR code, on which you can download interesting information about the flora and fauna of places near which you are located. Almost all forest parks and forests have special "health paths" - equipped and lighted in the evening routes, along which you can walk, run, ride bicycles. In most cases, you can always find well-equipped driveways to the forest with free parking and bonfire / barbecue / barbecue places. In the summer in the forests there are a lot of berries, in the autumn - mushrooms. There are a lot of forests in Estonia, but not so many people (so far) - so there are enough gifts of nature for everyone :)
In Estonia there are many opportunities for playing sports: if you want, you can just walk or run through the forests and along the coast, you can ride a bike, rollerblading, windsurf or yachting, or Nordic walking (with sticks), or ride a motorcycle, everything is nearby, and no one steps on the heels (because there are few people) and there are a lot of equipped places. If there is not enough space in Estonia, you can go to neighboring Latvia or Finland :)
It was also surprising that Estonians, who have a reputation as slow people in Russia, were not at all what they are usually thought to be in jokes. They are not at all slow! They speak slowly only Russian (if you are lucky and you come across someone who even knows Russian), and then because Estonian is very different from Russian and it is simply hard for them to speak it.
First of all, realize what exactly you are looking for / what you are striving for when moving to a new place and try to understand whether your move will help you achieve your goal or vice versa. It is better to spend time in advance on this reflection than to get depressed after moving, when it turns out that expectations do not correspond to reality.
Perhaps for someone after Moscow, the leisurely rhythm, compactness, a small number of people may not seem to be a virtue, but a disadvantage and will be perceived as boredom and lack of drive (some colleagues have experienced this).
Be sure to plan in advance with your other half what she will do in Estonia. This must be done to prevent possible breakdowns in depression from loneliness. It should be noted that in recent years the situation with communication has improved significantly. The Club of Programmer Wives has appeared - a Russian-speaking community of expats consisting of wives / girlfriends of guys working in Estonia in the IT / Software business. They have their own Telegram channel where you can just chat, ask for advice or help. In addition, they constantly meet in person in Tallinn cafes, have parties, hen parties, and visit each other. The club is exclusively female: men are strictly forbidden (ban in 5 minutes). Having learned about him, many of the visiting girls begin to communicate and receive useful information about moving and adapting before leaving home. It would be useful for your wife / girlfriend to chat in advance in the chat of the Club of Programmers Wives; believe me - this is a very useful source of advice and any kind of information.
If you have children who move with you, or if you plan to have a baby soon after the move, talk to the children who already live here with small children. There are many nuances. Alas, here I can’t share useful life hacks on this topic here, since by the time of the move our daughter was already an adult and remained in Moscow.
If you move by car and plan to bring it with you, you can not bother with registering it here: in principle, it is quite possible to drive to Russian numbers (many do so). However, registering a car is not so difficult. But the rights after 1 year of permanent residence will have to change; this is also not difficult, but keep in mind that you will have to hand over Russian rights to the Estonian police (however, no one bothers you then to get a duplicate in Russia).
In general, in Estonia your own car is not so much needed - as it is very convenient to travel around the city by free public transport or taxi (which is sometimes cheaper than gasoline + paid parking in some places, especially in the center). And if you need a car - it is enough to simply rent it for a while; however, alas, a service such as car sharing in Estonia did not take root (too few people). Therefore, think carefully - is it worth it to go here by car, or perhaps it is better to sell it at home, before departure. At the same time, some guys travel to Russia exclusively by car. If you plan to drive like this - of course, it is better to have your own and, moreover, with Russian numbers, since entering the Russian Federation in Estonian is a headache.
Be sure to think about where you will spend a large amount of suddenly appeared free time: you will definitely need some kind of hobby - sports, drawing, dancing, raising children, whatever. Otherwise, you can go crazy (there are bars and nightclubs here, but their number is small and, most likely, you will get bored quite quickly).
If in doubt whether you need it - come to visit the Tallinn office, see for yourself, ask your colleagues questions before making a decision. When the company was planning to open an office here, we organized a study tour for 4 days. Actually, I made the final decision on the move just after that.
So the idea was born to expand the geography of its presence and open a Parallels R&D center in Estonia.
Why Estonia?
Initially, various options were considered, located not so far from Moscow: Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia. In Estonia's favor, almost half of the country spoke Russian, and Moscow can be reached by any night train. In addition, Estonia has a very advanced model of e-government, which greatly simplifies all organizational aspects, and real work is being done to attract investors, start-ups and other promising projects.
')
So the choice has been made. And now - about the relocation to Tallinn through the mouths of our employees, who tell us what their expectations were met and which are not, and what initially unpredictable difficulties they had to face.
Alexander Vinogradov, Cloud Team Frontend-developer:
I moved alone, without a car, without animals - the easiest case to move. Everything went very smoothly. The most difficult part, perhaps, was the process of dismissal from the Moscow office - a lot of different pieces of paper had to be signed :) During the paperwork and the search for housing in Tallinn, the local relocation agency hired by our company helped us a lot, so all that was required of me was have documents in hand and be at the right time in the right place to meet with the relocation manager. I came across the only surprise at the bank when we were asked for a little more documents than was previously required. But the guys quickly orientated, and after a short wait, all the necessary documents and a residence permit were in my hands.
I can’t remember that for all the time I moved here I encountered any difficulties. Maybe something was, but apparently, I have not yet realized that this was a difficulty)
What pleasantly surprised you? First of all, the silence around was pleased. The silence is such that at first I could not fall asleep due to ringing in my ears. I live in the very center, but the road to the airport by tram is 10-15 minutes, to the port and bus station 10 minutes on foot - all trips around Europe have become much easier and faster. Sometimes you don’t even have time to realize that you were somewhere far away on a trip, because after an airplane or a ferry you literally immediately find yourself in your apartment.
The main difference between Moscow and Tallinn is the rhythm of life and the atmosphere. Moscow is a huge metropolis, and Tallinn is a quiet European city. In Moscow, sometimes you already come to work tired because of the long journey and clogged cars. In Tallinn, my journey from apartment to work is 10-15 minutes in the half-empty bus lounge - “door to door”.
I will not say that I suffered greatly from great stress in Moscow, but if you can live without it, then why not? In addition, the pluses described by me a little higher came. I guessed that something like this would happen, but what would be so good - I could not even think. The second moment is working - I became closer to the people with whom I worked closely while in the Moscow office, but then the distance was much greater, now the interaction process has improved significantly, which I am very pleased.
Small life hacks: when looking for housing, pay attention to its novelty - in old houses you can stumble upon the unexpectedly very high cost of utilities. It takes about a month to get a local bank card, and here - never an advertisement - the Tinkoff card simplified my life. He paid her and took cash without commission this month.
Everything described above is just a personal opinion. Come and make your own.
Sergey Malykhin, Program Manager
Actually, the move itself was relatively easy.
Moreover, to a large extent, thanks to the support provided by the company.
A very competent step on the part of Parallels was to hire relocation specialists in Estonia - the company Move My Talent - who helped us a lot at first: provided the required information, conducted seminars for us and family members, delivered lectures - about Estonia, Estonians, local mentality, culture, the intricacies of local laws and official procedures, the peculiarities of the urban areas of Tallinn, etc.), went with us to public places and helped to draw up documents, drove to view apartments for rent.
In Moscow, almost all of the paperwork (work visa to Estonia, medical insurance, etc.) was done by HR Parallels employees.
We didn’t even have to go to the embassy - they just took our passports and returned them with a six-month work visa in a couple of days.
We ourselves could only make the final decision, pack our things and go.
Perhaps, just the decision was given the most difficult.
In fact, at first I didn’t even want to go, because by nature I am a fairly conservative person who does not like sudden changes.
I hesitated for a long time, but in the end I decided to treat this as an experiment and the possibility of shaking my life a little.
At the same time, the main advantage I saw was the opportunity to break out of the frantic Moscow rhythm of life and move on to a more measured step.
From what was not easy and surprised, the disgusting quality of local medicine unpleasantly surprised me. Moreover, equipment purchased with European grants is most often very good. But not enough specialist doctors. Sometimes a specialist doctor paid for by the local health insurance fund (Estonian compulsory medical insurance) has to wait 3-4 months. And sometimes you have to wait for a paid admission for months. Good specialists strive to get a job in Western Europe (mainly in neighboring Finland and Sweden). Remain either old (age) or mediocre (qualification). Paid medical services are quite expensive. Medicine in Moscow seems to me to be significantly better and more affordable.
Another problem for me was the originality and leisurelyness of the local service: from online stores, to car repair shops, kitchen manufacturers, furniture sales, etc.
In general, they are at the level that was in Moscow in the early 2000s. If you compare with the level of service in Moscow or St. Petersburg now (even with all the known shortcomings of the latter), the comparison will clearly not be in Estonia's favor.
Well, here's an example: I had to fix the headlights in the car.
I turned to the local Opel official, explained that I want to sign up for the diagnosis and repair of headlights, and at the same time do the scheduled maintenance.
I handed over the car. Without waiting for the call by the end of the working day, I call them back just before the closing time - they say: “lock up, gottoffo.”
I'm coming. I look through the account - there is only the amount for changing the oil in the engine. I ask: “and the headlights?” In response: “farr? aah ... ah, yes! farr ... don't raptuttttt! ”Phew. And so almost everywhere. True, the situation is gradually starting to improve. Now better than it was 4 years ago.
Of the pleasant impressions - I really like the fact that Estonia is a small country and Tallinn is a relatively small city with a calm / leisurely rhythm of life, without traffic jams. The locals, however, can argue with me (they consider Tallinn a city at a frantic pace), but when compared with Moscow, the difference is very much felt.
Much less time was spent on moving around the city. Here in Tallinn in an hour you can manage to do three orders of magnitude more things than in a day in Moscow. In Moscow, I sometimes spent up to 5 hours in total just to get to the office by car in the morning and return back in the evening. On the best days, 3 hours of pure time by car or 2 hours by public transport. In Tallinn, we get from home to office in 10-15 minutes. From one remote end of the city to the other, you can get a maximum of 30-35 minutes by car or 40 minutes by public transport. As a result, each of us had a lot of free time, which in Moscow was spent on moving around the city.
It was surprising that in Estonia you can live quite normally without knowing the Estonian language. In Tallinn, approximately 40% of the inhabitants are Russian speakers. Recently, their number has significantly increased due to immigration from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan. The older generation of Estonians (40+) in most cases still remembers the Russian language (since Soviet times).
Young people for the most part do not understand Russian, but they communicate fairly well in English. Therefore, one way or another can always be explained. True, sometimes you have to do this in sign language when the person you speak does not know either Russian or English - this happens mainly when you come across people without a higher education. We live in the Lasnamäe area (locals often call it Lasnogorsk) - this is the Tallinn region of the compact and most massive residence of Russian-speaking residents. Something like Little Odessa on Brighton Beach. Many residents “do not go to Estonia” :) and do not speak Estonian in principle. Unfortunately, this is one of the problems: if you want to study Estonian, say, in order to get a permanent residence permit after 5 years, or change your citizenship - alas, the Estonian-speaking environment that would motivate you to study and use the Estonian language, here you will not find. At the same time, the Estonian part of society is quite closed and does not really strive to let Russian speakers into their circle.
A pleasant surprise for me was free transport, in which there are not so many people (because there are not many people in Estonia) - the total population of the country is about 1 million 200 thousand. The local ones, though, are actively scolding their own transport, but he nevertheless walks very carefully, most of the buses are new and quite comfortable, and they are really free for local residents.
Surprised and pleasantly pleased with the quality of dairy products and local black bread. Local milk, sour cream, cottage cheese are really very tasty, the quality is significantly better than domestic. Black bread is also very tasty - for 4 and a half years we seem to have tried not all available varieties yet :)
The local forests, and swamps, and generally good ecology are pleasing. Most of the swamps have special educational trails: wooden flooring that you can walk along (sometimes they are wide enough even to walk with a pram). The swamps are very beautiful. As a rule, 4G Internet is available everywhere (even in the center of swamps). On many educational trails in the swamps, there are posts with a QR code, on which you can download interesting information about the flora and fauna of places near which you are located. Almost all forest parks and forests have special "health paths" - equipped and lighted in the evening routes, along which you can walk, run, ride bicycles. In most cases, you can always find well-equipped driveways to the forest with free parking and bonfire / barbecue / barbecue places. In the summer in the forests there are a lot of berries, in the autumn - mushrooms. There are a lot of forests in Estonia, but not so many people (so far) - so there are enough gifts of nature for everyone :)
In Estonia there are many opportunities for playing sports: if you want, you can just walk or run through the forests and along the coast, you can ride a bike, rollerblading, windsurf or yachting, or Nordic walking (with sticks), or ride a motorcycle, everything is nearby, and no one steps on the heels (because there are few people) and there are a lot of equipped places. If there is not enough space in Estonia, you can go to neighboring Latvia or Finland :)
It was also surprising that Estonians, who have a reputation as slow people in Russia, were not at all what they are usually thought to be in jokes. They are not at all slow! They speak slowly only Russian (if you are lucky and you come across someone who even knows Russian), and then because Estonian is very different from Russian and it is simply hard for them to speak it.
Life hacks for those who want to move to Estonia
First of all, realize what exactly you are looking for / what you are striving for when moving to a new place and try to understand whether your move will help you achieve your goal or vice versa. It is better to spend time in advance on this reflection than to get depressed after moving, when it turns out that expectations do not correspond to reality.
Perhaps for someone after Moscow, the leisurely rhythm, compactness, a small number of people may not seem to be a virtue, but a disadvantage and will be perceived as boredom and lack of drive (some colleagues have experienced this).
Be sure to plan in advance with your other half what she will do in Estonia. This must be done to prevent possible breakdowns in depression from loneliness. It should be noted that in recent years the situation with communication has improved significantly. The Club of Programmer Wives has appeared - a Russian-speaking community of expats consisting of wives / girlfriends of guys working in Estonia in the IT / Software business. They have their own Telegram channel where you can just chat, ask for advice or help. In addition, they constantly meet in person in Tallinn cafes, have parties, hen parties, and visit each other. The club is exclusively female: men are strictly forbidden (ban in 5 minutes). Having learned about him, many of the visiting girls begin to communicate and receive useful information about moving and adapting before leaving home. It would be useful for your wife / girlfriend to chat in advance in the chat of the Club of Programmers Wives; believe me - this is a very useful source of advice and any kind of information.
If you have children who move with you, or if you plan to have a baby soon after the move, talk to the children who already live here with small children. There are many nuances. Alas, here I can’t share useful life hacks on this topic here, since by the time of the move our daughter was already an adult and remained in Moscow.
If you move by car and plan to bring it with you, you can not bother with registering it here: in principle, it is quite possible to drive to Russian numbers (many do so). However, registering a car is not so difficult. But the rights after 1 year of permanent residence will have to change; this is also not difficult, but keep in mind that you will have to hand over Russian rights to the Estonian police (however, no one bothers you then to get a duplicate in Russia).
In general, in Estonia your own car is not so much needed - as it is very convenient to travel around the city by free public transport or taxi (which is sometimes cheaper than gasoline + paid parking in some places, especially in the center). And if you need a car - it is enough to simply rent it for a while; however, alas, a service such as car sharing in Estonia did not take root (too few people). Therefore, think carefully - is it worth it to go here by car, or perhaps it is better to sell it at home, before departure. At the same time, some guys travel to Russia exclusively by car. If you plan to drive like this - of course, it is better to have your own and, moreover, with Russian numbers, since entering the Russian Federation in Estonian is a headache.
Be sure to think about where you will spend a large amount of suddenly appeared free time: you will definitely need some kind of hobby - sports, drawing, dancing, raising children, whatever. Otherwise, you can go crazy (there are bars and nightclubs here, but their number is small and, most likely, you will get bored quite quickly).
If in doubt whether you need it - come to visit the Tallinn office, see for yourself, ask your colleagues questions before making a decision. When the company was planning to open an office here, we organized a study tour for 4 days. Actually, I made the final decision on the move just after that.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/460893/
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