Bill Seeks to End Soft Line on Residence Permits for Entrepreneurs
The Ministry of the Interior has submitted a bill that tightens the conditions for granting temporary residence permits to foreign business people.
The goal is to ensure that only those people who would serve the greater good of society by moving to Estonia are granted a residence permit, said the ministry.
Interior Minister Ken-Marti Vaher sought to allay fears that the country was establishing prohibitive barriers to professionals relocating.
"We have a noteworthy number of cases of abuse," he told Postimees. "We are trying to maintain balance and put more efforts into follow-up checks than we have."
He said the current legislation gives authorities "fairly compelling" powers to perform checks before and afterwards. "But as the Police and Border Guard had requested a more specific set of criteria, we are acceding to this," he said.
The draft law sets out additional conditions for those seeking a residence permit to serve as members of a company's management board - one of the categories at the heart of a scandal last year. If the bill is passed, companies must have been founded at least five months prior to the application, and have the same period of real business activity. Both the applicant's prospective move to Estonia and the nature of the company itself must promote the "development of the Estonian economy, education or science." And the term of such a category of residence permit will now be one instead of two years.
The bill also abolishes the restriction on single employer. Now foreign nationals would be able to work as management or supervisory officers at more than one company as long as each employer pays a salary of 1.24 times the average gross wage.
As to the other problematic category - residence permit for enterprise - the bill establishes criteria for evaluating whether the entrepreneur's company is creating jobs and generating tax revenue in Estonia. Companies would need to pay monthly social tax on the equivalent of least five times the average gross wage. The term of the permit will be two years instead of five years.
Among other changes, the bill also requires the Police and Border Guard Board to establish an advisory committee to provide expert testimony as to whether the applicant's business plans have sufficient merit; the Security Police may also be called on for background investigations.
Kristopher Rikken