Submission of a notice of residence

Before starting to fill in the note of residence electronically, it must be saved on your device.

For a residential address to be entered in the population register, an individual must submit a notice of residence to the city or rural municipality government of his or her residence or to the Tallinn City District Government within 14 days; in case of relocating to a foreign state, within 30 days. The date when the notice of residence is received by the city or rural municipality government is considered to be the starting date of the validity period of the residence data. In case of relocation to a foreign state, the data concerning the place of residence in another country must be communicated within 30 days to previous municipality government lived in Estonia or to the Estonian Embassy.

A notice of residence can be submitted to Local government/Tallinn City district (Service provider contacts) governing the individual’s place of residence:

• by going in person;
• by sending a notice of residence by post and appending a copy of the page containing the personal data from an identity document;
• by sending a digitally signed notice by e-mail;
• by using the e-service of the e-population register (access to the portal is possible via ID-card, Mobile-ID and Smart-ID).

A notice of residence must be signed by all adults presented on the notice of residence except individuals under his or her guardianship.


Valid place of residence can be checked at the e-population register.

The purpose of registering the residential address of an Estonian citizen permanently living in a foreign state is to inform the population register about his or her address details in a foreign state. This makes it possible to ensure him or her citizen and alien’s rights, which are organised by the Estonian state on the basis of information held in the population register.

On leaving Estonia, an individual can submit his or her residential address in the foreign state with a notice of residence to a local government in Estonia. If an individual already lives in a foreign state, he or she can submit an application for the registration of his or her permanent residential address to the Estonian honorary consul or foreign mission or, in their absence, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which in their turn will submit the relevant information for entry in the population register.

If you have once lived in Estonia, submitted an Estonian address for entry in the Population Register, and left the residence address unchanged in the Population Register upon your departure from Estonia, your Estonian residence address is still shown in the Population Register. According to the Population Register, you are therefore a resident of Estonia. The residence data in the Population Register can be changed on the basis of a residence notice submitted by you.