living and studying in estonia
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Living and Studying in EstoniaTRANSCRIPT
WHY ESTONIA?
Small, Beautiful European Union Country with just 1.3 Million population so there is demand for experts here
Estonian Universities worldwide ranking is very good compared to other countries
Very cheap living cost as compared to other countries of Europe
Neighboring countries are Finland, Russia, Latvia and Lithuania
You can easily move to any part of Europe from here.
They are promoting their country by opening their borders for International students.
You can build your own company in Estonia on the internet (E-Residence)
LEVEL OF STUDY
Bachelors
Masters
PhD
Their intake is once a year. Deadline is May 15 but it differs from university to university so please check.
PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
Tallinn University of Technology
Tallinn University
University of Tartu
Estonian University of Life Sciences
Estonian academy of Arts
Estonian academy of Music
Estonian Business school
SCHOLARSHIPS AND EXPENSES
For Masters degree you have to secure an admission in the university and they would offer you tuition fee waiver scholarship like I got in University of Tartu. After coming here you can apply for several other scholarships as well.
For PhD, you also have to secure admission in the university and you will be eligible for the Estonian government scholarship which gives 442 Euros per month + you will be getting funding from your lab as well so more or less you would be earning like 1000 Euros per month in University of Tartu.
Its very cheap to live here. You can easily live in 200 Euros (~22,000 PKR) per month if you don’t smoke or drink
WORK WITH/AFTER STUDIES
You can work part time with your studies but its hard to get job because of language barrier, and you wont be getting time for work because university give lots of homework so it would be hard to manage both at the same time.
You can create your own company here or you can look for jobs, they give 6 months visa after your studies to find jobs
They give citizenship to foreigner if He/she worked in Estonia for 5 years and know Estonian language very well.
VISA PROCEDURE
The most unfortunate thing for Pakistanis is that they don’t have Estonian Embassy in Pakistan so in order to get residence permit one have to go India, Turkey, Egypt, China, Tokyo, Georgia etc.
After securing admission the most irritating thing is to go in any of the above mentioned countries.
VISA OPTIONS
When looking for options we need to bear in mind expenses because flying to another country is an expensive thing!
The most feasible option is to go Turkey because their flight is cheap like < 65,000 PKR if bought at the right time.
Turkish embassy can be nightmare sometimes like for me it was, they refused me visa after three weeks. They don’t have any criteria, their mood is their criteria. They gave visa to my friends here in Estonia with the same situation as mine but refused mine so you can imagine.
Egypt is another option to consider, but apply quickly because they take almost 30+ days to process your visa application. Egypt flight rate > 70,000
I would suggest you to apply for both Turkey and Egypt at the same time. In this way you would be saving your precious time.
VISA OPTIONS
China and Japan have tough visa policies so consider them if you can fulfill their requirements.
One Best but little expensive option is Georgia. You can get their E-Visa in no time but their flight is little expensive 90,000+ PKR. One of my friend came through this route.
The cheapest but most hard option is to reach New Delhi, India because Indian embassy doesn’t issue visa easily and they don’t accept that you are going there to apply for Estonian visa in their embassy so you need to apply for Tourist visa and fulfill their requirements.
One other option is to apply for Schengen visa of any country and then reach Estonia and apply for residence permit.
VISA TYPES
Get appointment from Estonian embassy of your chosen country beforehand and send them your documents for pre evaluation via email
In order to study and live here you need to apply for Temporary Residence Permit for study. It take 2 months to process but the good news is
You can apply for Estonian D visa(For Masters and PhD) in the embassy. It takes 7 days to process that type of visa. If you get it you can travel directly from that Country (Lets say Turkey) to Estonia and apply for residence permit on reaching Estonia.
MY STORY
I came to know about Estonia from Scholarship network group and searched their universities, emailed professors and applied in University of Tartu for Masters in Computer Science. Fortunately I got the tuition fee waiver scholarship even with the low GPA (2.95). Then I applied for Turkish visa and was rejected by them, I had one month left so I applied in Egyptian embassy and they gave me visa after 35 days then I went Egypt and got Estonian visa. You can imagine how painful it was for me but ALLHAMDULILLAH I reached and I have decided to help fellow countrymen as much as I can so nobody go through the pain what I went through.
Waqar Baig Bhai is doing an excellent job masha ALLAH, everyone of us should follow his footsteps and help others. He has been an inspiration for me from over a year. All credits to him that I am in Estonia right now. May ALLAH bless you and your family Ameen.
If I can reach here you can too so people please apply as much as you can and help others. Thanks
MORE INFORMATION
Check out the link http://www.studyinestonia.ee/ it has every information.
Moreover You can write me at my email address [email protected] or join https://www.facebook.com/groups/174980576174142/ and post your query in the group.