AmCham Estonia Board of Directors co-signed the letter to the Ministry of the Interior

Passports and currency — Image by © 145/Thomas Kokta/Ocean/Corbis

On September 27, AmCham Estonia Board of Directors co-signed the letter to the Ministry of the Interior, initiated by the Estonian Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Employer’s Association. The letter addressed the issue of the draft regulation of the immigration quota allocation for 2020.

The Estonian Ministry of the Interior has proposed a draft regulation about how the immigration quota for 2020 shall be allocated. The proposed draft legislation together with explanatory notes (in Estonian) can be seen HERE.

As a short summary, below are the most important changes that are to be implemented:

  1. Quota shall be allocated in 2 parts. Part 1 for Jan-June and part 2 for July-December 2020
  • Work and business-related residence permits shall be given strictly in only 5 selected fields of activity: Industry, Info and communications, transport, education and health. Each field has its own limited quota. Education quota for the entire year is 39 residence permits.
  • 50% of the quota or 648 residence permits shall be given out only, based on “significant state interest”. Each individual such permit shall be signed by a line minister and approved by the minister of the Interior.

The ministry has asked the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KODA) and the Employers’ Association to comment. As a response, KODA and the Employers’ Association prepared and sent the official letter that you can read HERE (in Estonian), that has also been co-signed by AmCham Estonia.

We take this matter very seriously and would appreciate any feedback from our members on this issue! In case you have a personal story that you could share with us on how that situation might be/is influencing your life and/or business, please contact us at daria@amcham.ee