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Comment by potrebitel22 | Hacker News Reader

The problem is that in order to operate as a startup, as the whole point of the e-residency is, it's not that easy. Getting a bank account as of end of September is quite hard, border line of impossible. Without a bank account, no startup can be setup properly.

Other than that - very good idea and probably the execution will be even better in the near future.

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Try opening a bank account in the UK, if you think it's hard in Estonia. Unlike Estonia, you CAN NOT just come to the UK from a foreign country and open a bank account. Even if you've lived here for a while, it's still an unbelievably ridiculous, frustrating and wasteful process.

Let's start with having to call the bank weeks or months in advance for an appointment, like everything else in the UK. Even though your appointment is for a specific hour, once you arrive on time, be prepared to wait hours before someone sees you. You will then need two different proofs of address, alongside endless other documents. For a business account, you need all partners to be present at said appointment and you will be asked endless questions about the nature of your business and your expected cashflow. If for some reason your conversational English happens to be not so good, be prepared to be flat-out refused a bank account, without much explanation. All of this is usually justified by Know-Your-Customer and anti money lanundering procedures, which is a bit ironic, considering that HSBC are the ones doing all the money laundering to begin with.

I moved to the UK from a foreign country (from the EU though) and found it quite easy to start my company and open my accounts.

It really depends on the bank and branch you're walking into. My advice: Avoid doing what I did and don't apply for your first current account online. It might seem more efficient and time-saving but it's actually not - because of your non-existent credit history in the UK - they will have to ask you for endless documents.

Once you're in the UK, walk into a high-street bank that is actively seeking customers. Lloyds Bank or Barclays comes to mind. Ask for a basic bank account, which they will open for you without proof of address. Make an appointment with the same bank for a startup current account - sometimes they will send you to a different branch - if they don't do business banking themselves.

They will ask you about your business and estimated turnover. Make sure you bring your incorporation documents.

It's worth noting that I'm the only director of my limited company and the companies registered office was my home address - so no further proofs of address were required.

Waiting for your cards to arrive in the mail is what takes the most time, but I was able to use my online banking account even before I had my card.

Totally agree. It has been an exceptionally difficult process to open a bank account for my UK company. Ridiculous amount of nonsense. Your point about the money laundering irony is also spot on.

Been there, done that. It took me almost two months to open a bank account once I was there and even then I was considered lucky given the requirements at that time. But it is not that easy in Estonia either, second hand experience from a friend - he went there to setup a startup to be used later, but no luck.

Right now yes, to open a bank account in Estonia you need to visit a local bank physically (although then it is very easy). Part of the money laundering regulations common in Estonia. Luckily this law will change in spring.

Not myself, but a very good friend tried that. He submitted all the paperwork electronically and went to Estonia for a week to open a bank account. From the 3 banks that are supporting E-residency they all denied to open the account. One of the managers he talked with explained that the bank do not open accounts without physical address in Estonia. Probably that will change, but that's experience from end of September this year. Not to mention the disappointment for the whole process, which is not as advertised, although he did a very nice trip to the country itself and was worth it (his words).

So why didn't he just get an address in Estonia? There are a number of virtual mailbox companies in Tallinn and elsewhere.

Why is this considered hard? A date flexible return flight from Toronto is $935 ($725 USD). Compared to what a developer can make in really any Western country, I don't really see what the issue is.

Compared to what a developer can make in really any Western country.

In my Western European country, we make less than $20k/y on average, so that is kind of high (~ 2 months' rent) for developers on the lower end of the scale.

I'm not arguing against you, just pointing out that salaries for devs are very variable even in the Western countries.

>In my Western European country

He quoted you a price from Toronto. You can probably find Ryan air for under 200€ roundtrip - bigger problem will be that you'll probably spend 2 days on it.

Also 20k $/year as a developer ?! You earn more in Eastern Europe unless you're a PHP "developer" or something like that.

What country are you in?

Portugal.

In the Nomad Forum where Estonia is currently giving an AMA, they mentioned that many of the applicants are coming from India & Malaysia, where the cost of a flight would be a much bigger deal.

https://nomadforum.io/t/i-m-kaspar-director-of-estonia-s-e-r...

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