Your first weeks in Estonia: the order that makes everything easy

Estonia rewards those who know the order. Every service hangs on your personal identification number and your ID card, so the first two steps determine how smoothly the rest goes. This is the list, in order, with the deadlines alongside.

The address, and (with a car) the inspection

Register your place of residence within fourteen days of moving in at the municipality. It is free, can largely be done online, and delivers three things at once: your isikukood (personal identification number), your place in the population register and your right of residence for five years. Register the whole family — school and child benefit depend on it.

If you brought the car, its clock runs faster than yours: within five working days of putting it into use it must be registered. So plan the technical inspection and the visit to Transpordiamet in the first week, and allow for the one-off registration fee.

Applying for the ID card

Make an appointment at the PPA and apply for the ID card — the only compulsory counter visit of the whole process (€ 45 per adult). The card is ready a few weeks later; activate the PIN codes and test it with one login on eesti.ee. From that moment you sign digitally with legal validity, and the rest of this list can be done from the sofa.

Healthcare: mind the fourteen-day gap

If you are employed, you are insured via the social tax your employer pays — but cover only starts fourteen days after the entry in the employment register. Don't plan a gap between your Dutch cancellation and the Estonian start date, or bridge it. If you come with a pension or benefit, you hand in the S1 document from the CAK at Tervisekassa — note: that CAK route is expected to remain open from 1 November 2026 only for statutory benefits such as AOW (the Dutch state pension) or WIA, with only an early retirement pension your route changes. Then register the family with a perearst (GP) with an open list — prescriptions run digitally via your ID card.

The rest: bank, school, and one number

With ID card and isikukood a bank account is routine (LHV, SEB or Swedbank). The school place runs via the municipality and your registered address; compulsory schooling starts at seven. And save one number besides 112: 1220, the medical advice line, also in English. Whoever gets through all this in two weeks is administratively done — the rest of settling in is no longer paperwork but living.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but applied to your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines monitored. See the whole journey to Estonia.