Pope Francis becomes e-resident of Estonia

Photo: Mattias Tammet / Vabariigi Presidendi Kantselei

Pope Francis, who arrived in Estonia on a visit Tuesday morning, became the 37,647th e-resident of Estonia when President Kersti Kaljulaid gave the church leader the Estonian e-resident digital ID.

Pope Francis is the first head of state to obtain Estonian e-residency. Previously several heads of government, such as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel have been awarded e-residency of Estonia.

Estonia in 2014 became the first country in the world to offer e-residency, a government-issued digital ID available to anyone in the world. The status of e-resident offers the possibility to use the platform of e-services enabling authentication of the e-resident and the freedom to easily start and manage a global business in a trusted EU environment from anywhere in the world.

The e-resident community of Estonia keeps growing and there are nationals of 157 countries among the e-residents at present.

Pope Francis is paying an apostolic visit to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to mark the 100th anniversary of the three countries.