Analytics, Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation

In 2014, long-term residence permit applications were submitted by 847 people. Among them, there was the biggest amount of Russian citizens – 552, people with undefined citizenship – 166, citizens of Ukraine – 60, and U.S. citizens – 17.

In January this year, a further 104 such applications were added, of which 64 came from the citizens of Russia.

"The number of long-term residence permits has in recent years been relatively stable. The slight decrease is primarily related to departure from Estonia or becoming an Estonian citizens," explains Police and Border Guard Board (PBGB) Aliens Division Head Liis Valk.

Most of the long-term residence permits have been issued to citizens of Russia – 86,375. 78,596 residents of undetermined citizenship have a long-term residence permit (at the beginning of last year, the number was 81,269).

At the beginning of the year, 4,107 Ukrainian citizens and 1,252 citizens of Belarus had Estonia's long-term residence permits. They were followed by the US – 162 citizens, Azerbaijan – 133, Armenia – 118 and Georgia – 75.

PBGB issued last year 4,060 fixed-term residence permits, and extended 4,803 fixed-term residence permits. "Mostly people come to Estonia for family reasons, for example, when marrying an Estonian resident or to work here. Studying and doing business are also common reasons," said Valk.

The biggest number of term residence permits for working were issued to citizens of Ukraine – 710, Russian citizens – 173, U.S. – 80, Indian – 38, Byelorussian – 31 and Chinese citizens – 22. For studying, the term residence permit was most frequently issued to Russian citizens – 141, Ukrainian – 86, Georgian 78, Nigerian – 71. Valk said that the majority of the Nigerian students studied in Ukraine before coming to Estonia.