Top specialist/high-skilled specialist residence permit in Estonia

A top specialist, according to our immigration laws, is an individual with appropriate professional training or experience (can be in any field). When applying for a residence permit, the qualification of the individual might be checked with different documents (education, previous work experience etc.).

This particular basis can be useful as you do not need a permission from the Unemployment Fund and this employee would also not go under the immigration quota.

In addition to the necessary specialist skills, there is a higher salary requirement compared to the general employment basis. The salary paid must be at least equal to the latest annual average wages in Estonia published by Statistics Estonia, multiplied by the coefficient 1,5.

In addition, the employer employing the top specialist also has to meet certain criteria:

• An employer has been registered in Estonia for at least 12 months +;

• one of the following 3 is met: has at least 65 000 euros of equity capital or sales revenue of 200 000 euros per year or social tax paid by the company is equal to at least 5 times the social tax paid on Estonian total average gross wage.