Bill Would Raise Controlled Immigration Limits
A bill to increase the number of Estonian residency permits that can be issued in one year is waiting for confirmation.
The draft legislation would allow an additional 336 immigrants annually to be granted residency if they are accepted by immigration authorities, amounting to 1,344 permits per year.
Currently, the annual limit for residency permits is calculated as 0.075 percent of Estonia's permanent residents. The bill would raise that to 0.1 percent, ministry spokeswoman Karin Kangro told uudised.err.ee.
The Interior Ministry decided to raise the limit because, this year, the current cutoff was reached earlier than expected, at the end of August.
Earlier this year, the Interior Ministry reduced the number of temporary residence permits that can be given to company executives, which constituted the majority of the total residence permits issued. Applications from company executives rose from 20 to 60 percent of the total job-mobility-related residence applications, and authorities later uncovered a scam under which individuals created false businesses to gain legal status in the European Union and the Schengen passport-free travel area.
Ott Tammik