Good Morning
A friend of mine from India asked about Estonia Visa and citizenship scheme for startup/entrepreneurship. I read some of pages from google but its difficult to extract relevant information and benefit of this scheme.

1. I want to know if anyone has first hand experience or someone who can share experience of his /her friend?
2. Is there also any benefit if someone follow the process and granted citizenship of Estonia. So is he allowed to explore job market of Schengen zone on behalf of this visa/ citizenship?

Thanks for your reply.
Regards
Anshuman

What makes you think we have any interest in trying to help you diddle the system ?

I believe this forum is to help each other and share personal experience/knowledge without any commercial interest.

This is a forum in Switzerland. Most people are already based in Switzerland and got here on their own merit.

So you are going to pay a million euros to obtain citizenship of a country in order go look for a job in the EU/EEA/CH..... does not sound terribly bright if you ask me.

To get citizenship as opposed to residency you need to invest a million euro in a start up that will have a significant impact on the states economy. If you are going to do that, it would seem to be a good idea to stay there and make sure your million does not disappear.... about 90% of startups fail.

Interesting question.
Yes. And some of those in Switzerland, and perhaps even on EF, may have come from Estonia and if so, might be able to give OP some info.

OP, since many people from countries with general circumstances less comfortable than those in Switzerland yearn for a change, so I can certainly understand how non-EU citizens could want to investigate the prerequisites and legal processes needed to be allowed to move to the EU. Currently we know several who are making such enquiries in various countries, none about Estonia, and none with success so far.

As if Switzerland will not function without you. Dont fool yourself.

That's a legitimate wish and I wish anyone in this position the best of luck, but investigating the prerequisites to move to a new EU only to have access to other (richer) countries later on is naturally not seen in a positive light.

It does look like "diddling the system" for one reason or another and frankly at the moment I have no sympathy for that.

Thanks for explaining that perspective. I hadn't read any "diddling the system" in the original enquiry. Perhaps that's because I currently know a number of people with non-EU citizenships, living in dreadful circumstances in non-EU countries, who would desperately like to be able to move to another country and would gratefully take any legal way they could manage, to do so.

I also know a number of non-EU others who started with the EU country to which they were most likely to gain access (perhaps by descent, for example, or by links granted through former colonialism, or through their special skills) but with the long-term goal of later - having acquired that EU citizenship - being able to move to another country in which their heart lay, or their better professional prospects.

A few months ago there was an interesting thread about naturalisation. Some posters felt that one might or even ought to feel a connection or loyalty to the country into which one naturalises, while others saw citizenship as purely a bureaucratic procedure the legal requirements which one either fulfils or does not. And of course some mixed perspectives. I suppose that those tending towards the "connection and loyalty" side would think that OP's friend, if he gained Estonian citizenship only in order to later be free to move to France, say, would be "using" Estonia, while those on the "bureaucratic procedure" side would find it legitimate and straightforward to find out what Estonia's requirements are, and then to set out aiming to fulfil them.

When people are considering leaving Switzerland, too, we often advise them to try to naturalise first, if they do fulfil the Swiss authorities' regulations, so that they can be free to leave (including the whole of the EU) and also, if they ever were to want to, to return to Switzerland.

Well realistically anyone who comes up with idea that the can find a million Euro , give it away to an Estonian start up to loose and then go try and find a job in another part of the EU/EEA/CH is more likely to be scammed that scamming.

So they are voluntarily being scammed?

I don't think OP has ever mentioned having that million btw, he just wants a loophole to avoid a normal immigration path.
If what their friend really wants is to find a job elsewhere then they should start doing that.

First of all thanks to all respected member, who shared their valuable input.

@doropfiz, highly appreciate for your positive input. Everyone read my thread according to their own filter. When someone asked a question here, that means he try to understand prospects of mentioned situation. The one who criticizing my question, Switzerland exist since 1291 without most of u

Moving from 3rd world countries to Germany and working in swiss or vice versa is not diddling the system.

Here I simply ask a quarry, did not share my opinion. Infact I suggested him to directly contact German or French companies for professional jobs. That would be easier way for him to integrate in cultural and earning point of view.

Best Regards

There is a lot of information on the internet about this, it is strange that you and your friend could not find out more, they are usually called golden visa schemes.

It is not possible to get an Estonian passport/citizenship by investing. The best you can get is Estonian residency. This is basically a permission to live and work without restrictions in Estonia for a number of years. This would allow you to take short trips for tourism into other Schengen countries without an additional visa, but does not allow employment into other countries or help you with work visas, for example in Switzerland, you would be considered Indian, albeit one currently living in Estonia.

Cyprus (an EU country) used to have a citizenship scheme by investment, but this was closed down recently after they realized that the 60 or so families who used it were pretty much using it for illegal activities and they revoked all the passports and nationality awarded that way (you can search the news about this too). They now only offer residency by investment too.

If you have 1 million and would like just to move to Switzerland, you don't need to invest in Estonia. As far as I know you can "retire" in Switzerland if you can prove that you can support yourself while living here, you can get a long-tern residence visa but without the right to work.

As far as living in a country and working in another, you still need to get permission to work in the other country. For example, to work in Switzerland and live in Germany, you must first find the job in Switzerland and get permission from the Swiss authorities to work in that job (work permit). If you get that, it is irrelevant if you choose to live in Switzerland or Germany nobody cares. You seem to believe that you get residency first and then that allows to find work, it doesn't work like that in your case, first you find the job, then the company asks for permission from the gvt to hire you, and residency is given afterwards more-or-less automatically.

For anyone considering "citizenship by investment", here are the requirements of the immigration authorities in Malta:
https://malta-citizenship.info/malta...SABEgJmgPD_BwE
Scroll down to "Investment Amounts and Fees".

And here's a whole list of "golden visas", with pop-up lists of the outline of the requirements per country, some of which require residency first.
https://www.goldenvisas.com/country

Just to point out that 'received wisdom' is that it usually takes a lot more than a million in assets to be granted this visa in Switzerland.

This document explaining this visa and process was pointed out in another thread on the topic, from a law firm. Note the amounts discussed in the calculations, and note the comments about non-EU nationals.

https://www.walderwyss.com/user_asse...tions/2230.pdf

These visas are negotiated on an individual basis, with the intended canton. As always, one probably could assume some measure of YMMV is possible.

You need far more than that, think X 20, here USD/CHF/GBP/€ 1 mio is chicken feed and certainly not enough anywhere near to excite the authorities

The good part is that the OP has not groaned on any posts on this topic.
Unlike the earlier one, where it was a different story.
Well done OP.... :-)

Golden Visa schemes do exist in EU. Also in US and UK.
I know people who applied for them to secure better future for their children.
So I understand why it would matter.
But most of them provide Residency and then the `passport`must be earned in the same way i.e. time in country, integration, following all the rules etc.
There are also professional companies which offer this service.
However I have not heard of anyone getting a CH passport this way.
You can get a B permit but the threshold is very significant.
Unless you can be an entrepreneur and show you are creating jobs in CH.

__________________
Logotherapy
That which gives reason for being.

No, absolutely not. But you've asked about a business visa and the possibility of looking for a job not in Estonia, which would have provided your friend with that visa, but further in other countries like Germany or Switzerland.
Maybe you should have asked directly how to get a business visa in these countries.