Estonia Digital Nomad Visa

The issuing authority's long-term visa guidance page states no minimum income figure. What it does require is documents proving the applicant's legal income during the six months before the application is submitted, showing the size, regularity and sources of that income.

The figure sits in secondary legislation. Under section 15(7) of Minister of the Interior Regulation No 82 of 18 December 2015 (Siseministri määrus nr 82), as amended with effect from 1 January 2026, the sufficient-funds rate for a person applying for or holding a visa for teleworking is 0.60 times the subsistence level for each day spent in Estonia. The 2026 State Budget Act (2026. aasta riigieelarve seadus) sets the subsistence level at EUR 220 a month, which gives EUR 132 a day, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs financial means table carries exactly that line: EUR 132 per day, equal to EUR 3,960 per month.

Alongside it sits the requirement to hold an active employment contract with a company registered outside Estonia, to conduct business through one's own company registered abroad, or to work as a freelancer for clients mostly outside Estonia.

Two things must be carried along with that number. First, the legal rate is set per day spent in Estonia and does not say whether income is net or gross; EUR 3,960 a month is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' 30-day conversion, which its document list for this category calls the monthly income threshold.

Second, the EUR 4,500 a month still shown on e-Residency programme pages, which the programme's own FAQ derives as EUR 150 times 30 days, does not match the rule in force: from 1 January 2026 the multiplier fell from 0.75 to 0.60. e-Residency presents the programme and does not decide; the power to assess and issue the visa rests with the Estonian representation or the Police and Border Guard Board, depending on where the application is filed.

The long-term visa is issued for the purpose of teleworking, and the core condition is that the work be anchored outside Estonia in one of three forms: continuing to work for an employer registered in a foreign country with whom the applicant has a contractual relationship.

Business activity for a company registered in a foreign country in which the applicant holds shares; or providing services mainly to customers whose place of business is in a foreign country.

The applicant must also prove that the work does not depend on location and can be performed using telecommunication technology.

What is granted is a category D visa, not a residence permit, and not e-Residency either.

The e-Residency programme page draws the line clearly: e-Residency is a government-issued digital identity for setting up and running a company online and carries no right to stay, while the digital nomad visa is a right to stay temporarily in Estonia for up to one year.

The intention to telework must be shown in specific documents: a written explanation by the applicant, a written confirmation by the employer that the duties can be performed as telework, and an employment contract or another contract under the law of obligations. The proceedings officer may request further information or documents.

The guidance page carries two separate thirty-day rules, and they measure entirely different things — confusing one for the other wrecks a plan.

The first is a filing deadline: the application must be submitted to the Police and Border Guard Board at least thirty days before the current period of stay expires.

The second is the review period, set out under its own heading Review of application: the Board shall review the submitted application within thirty days of the acceptance of the application.

The two figures coincide, but one counts backwards from the expiry date and the other forwards from acceptance, so someone who files close to the deadline can find the old period running out before an answer arrives.

The starting point of the second rule also repays attention: it is the date the application is accepted, not the date it is submitted.

As for the route, the form is completed beforehand in the visa pre-application environment, and the system emails back the application with its pre-application number; that form must be printed, signed by hand and brought to a Board service office, in person or through a representative.

There is no fully online filing route.

The long-term visa is issued for a single or multiple temporary stay in Estonia, valid for up to 12 months and allowing up to 365 days of stay within 12 consecutive months.

That ceiling equals the visa's own validity, so the route sets no minimum number of days in the country and no limit on absence. The holder may stay the whole year or come and go several times.

The number to plan around is 183. According to the Tax and Customs Board, a person staying in Estonia for 183 days or more within 12 consecutive months becomes tax resident, counted back to the first day of arrival. The tax consequences are recorded in the tax cell of this page.

A person already in Estonia on another lawful ground of stay may apply for this visa in the country, at one of five Police and Border Guard Board offices in Tallinn, Tartu, Jõhvi, Narva and Pärnu, in person or through a representative.

Fingerprints are taken on application, unless they were taken within the previous 59 months.

The official financial means table of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has three columns, applicant, spouse and minor child, and on the line for this category the latter two both read not applicable:

That line reads teleworking, digital nomad visa, 132 euros per day equal to 3,960 euros per month, spouse not applicable, minor child not applicable.

The two not-applicable cells do not mean that family members are excluded from this category; they mean that no amount is applied to them, while other lines of the same table do set amounts for family members: the studies line shows 2,100 euros a month for a spouse, the doctoral studies line shows 704 euros, and the line for all other applicants shows both a spouse and a minor child at 70 euros per day.

The document set specific to teleworking likewise carries no line for accompanying family; the only related item is the form giving data concerning close relatives and family members that every long-stay visa applicant must file, and that is a declaration rather than an entitlement.

The right to accompany sits in the Aliens Act (Välismaalaste seadus): under section 62⁵(6), where a person is issued a visa for teleworking, the spouse, registered partner, minor child and an adult child unable to cope independently due to health or disability may be issued a visa on the same conditions as that person.

Section 15(7) of Siseministri määrus nr 82 provides that the sufficient-funds rate is not applied when these family members apply for a visa, which is what the two not-applicable cells in the table mean. The Act says such a visa may be issued, so the decision for each family member still rests with the authority reviewing the application.

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Estonia passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Estonia passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Estonia passport reaches 196 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The Police and Border Guard Board page states no tax obligation arising in Estonia. What it requires is proof of tax compliance elsewhere.

That proof has two levels: a certificate from a competent authority in the applicant's country of location proving payment of the mandatory taxes or social security contributions there, and a matching certificate from the country of the company's registered office showing no tax arrears.

The Estonian tax question is answered by the Tax and Customs Board. Under subsection 6(1) of the Income Tax Act, a person is tax resident if their place of residence is in Estonia, or if they stay in Estonia for at least 183 days over 12 consecutive calendar months.

A resident pays income tax on all income, derived in Estonia and abroad; a non-resident pays only on income received in Estonia. A temporary arrival is treated as resident from the first day of arrival, and where this becomes apparent later the registration is made retrospectively.

For a Vietnamese national the deciding instrument is the double taxation convention between Estonia and Viet Nam, signed on 26 September 2015, in force from 14 November 2016 and applied from 1 January 2017.

Where a person is resident in both countries, the convention settles it, and the person must file with the Tax and Customs Board a certificate of tax residency confirmed by the other country's tax authority.

The state fee for a long-term visa is EUR 120, and the authority's table places it in both columns — the same whether the application is made in Estonia or at a foreign representation, a position shared by only two other lines in that table: the visa with limited territorial validity at EUR 90 and the visa for a child aged 6 to 11 at EUR 60.

Set against the other lines, its position becomes clear. Amounts are in euro (EUR):

The last two lines fall outside the application itself and are worth knowing in advance. Extending the period of stay can only be done in Estonia. The first appeal is the dearest line on the table, more than the visa fee itself.

On payment, the two procedures carry two different reference numbers, and anyone paying at a foreign representation finds the payment details on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs page rather than on this table.