Intracompany Transferee Permit Rules Relaxed

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Executive Summary

Effective immediately, the rules for the Intracompany Transferee (ICT) Permit in Estonia have been relaxed as follows:

• ICTs can now remain on home contract and payroll; and
• Employers can apply for an ICT Permit without conducting a labor market test.  

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The situation

Effective immediately, the rules for the Intracompany Transferee (ICT) Permit in Estonia have been relaxed as follows:

• Home country contract and payroll. Foreign nationals can now remain on their home company’s contract and payroll, whereas previously they were required to be placed on local contract and payroll in Estonia. The change removes an inconsistency with the terms of the EU ICT Directive.
  • Impact.  This change allows employers more flexibility to decide which payroll and contract they would like their ICT employees to work under.
• Labor market testing eliminated. Employers can now apply for an ICT Permit without permission from the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund. This effectively eliminates the need for a labor market to determine whether there are local qualified workers to fill the same position, because this permission was the only step of the labor market test process.
  • Impact. This change aligns the policy of the immigration authorities with the terms of the EU ICT Directive, which states that employers seeking to hire an ICT do not need to perform a labor market test.  The elimination of the labor market step will streamline the ICT process and allow foreign nationals to obtain work authorization sooner.

 

Background

As a reminder, ICT Permits can be issued if the below criteria are met:

• The transferred foreign national qualifies as a specialist, manager or trainee;
• The receiving company is a branch of the home country company or belongs to the same corporate group as the company located in a non-EU Member State;
• The foreign national has an employment contract with a company located outside of an EU Member State and the receiving company has an obligation to employ the foreign national under conditions in the employment contract; and
• If the foreign national remains on the home company’s payroll, the home company must pay the foreign national a salary which is at least equal to the current average annual salary in Estonia, currently EUR 1,146 gross per month.

 

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].