At the end of 2014, Estonia became the first country in the world to offer e-Residency to any foreigner from around the world. e-Residency allows you to use the country's advanced digital public services, essentially, to do business from anywhere. This digital citizenship would allow, say, an Indian entrepreneur to establish an Estonian company that he runs from Singapore to serve clients based in Germany. He'd also be able to use his electronic signature to sign contracts with customers throughout the EU. All done online, remotely, hassle-free.
Estonian e-residents receive a government-issued smart ID-card, which provides:
Digital identification and authentication to secure services
Digital signing of documents
Digital verification of document authenticity
Document encryption.
However, e-Residency doesn’t grant citizenship, tax residency, residence or right of entry to Estonia or to the European Union. The e-Residency ID-card isn’t a physical identification or travel document and doesn’t display a photo.