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Post-Brexit, Estonians dwelling in the UK are inviting local friends to turn into e-Estonians. Thus, European status and options would for them be retained.
The way for Britons to Bremain is being born again as e-Estonians
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With current levels of British e-residents limited to a few dozens, Google Analytics says over the past week visits to the e-residency website are up tenfold in the UK. A potential reason is an article in the Independent introducing the Brits six ways to remain Europeans after Brexit.
A way indicated was Estonian e-residency. As of today, the article has been shared about 22,000 times.
E-residency project manager Kaspar Korjus says this is the key for Britons back into Europe.
«E-residency provides for a way to make borders less relevant in the digital world as e-residency helps with starting a business, management, and cooperation,» noted Mr Korjus. Over the Internet, an e-resident can establish a company, open a bank account an do e-banking transactions, gain access to international payment service providers, remote-manage a company and digitally sign documents and contracts.
Mr Korjus was careful not to try and predict a massive application from the island nation while they do not know what lies ahead. «The referendum let the parliament know what the people want but the actual decision has not been made yet and all the steps take very long,» he said on Monday over the radio.
To become e-resident of Estonia one needs not to show up physically and may comfortably submit one’s application over the Internet wherever he or she may be. The option is open for all foreigners, private persons and enterprises, wishing to use Estonian e-services.
As it stands, the Estonian e-residency launched in 215 has about 12,000 e-residents from 127 countries. The e-residency does not provide Estonian citizenship, nor can it be used as identity document.
For individuals who for business reasons need to belong to European common market may do so by becoming e-residents of Estonia. At the beginning of May 2016, e-residents included close to 1,300 owners of companies.