Best Startup Visa in Europe? 2026 Comparison

Last updated: October 15, 2026 · Aval Visa content team

You are a founder from outside the EU with a product, perhaps a co-founder, and a decision to make. The Netherlands, Finland and Estonia each run a residence route for founders of innovative companies. They differ on who judges your business, how much money you show and even the city where you apply. There is no single best startup visa in Europe: the answer turns on your team, your business and where you can apply from.

The full requirements are in our guides to the Netherlands startup visa, the Finland startup visa and the Estonia startup visa.

Netherlands vs Finland vs Estonia, row by row (2026)

Topic (2026 figures)	Netherlands	Finland	Estonia
Who judges the business	RVO advises and IND decides. You need positive RVO advice and a signed contract with a facilitator	Business Finland gives a free Eligibility Statement; Migri decides the permit	The Startup Committee of the Ministry of the Interior, free of charge. The mission (or PPA in Estonia) decides the D visa; PPA decides the residence permit
Team and ownership	No team size or share on IND’s list. You must be more than just a shareholder or financier, the Trade Register entry must show your control, and the facilitator may not hold a majority	At least 2 founders who move to Finland and work full-time; the team holds at least 60%	No team size or share. The residence permit needs a shareholding in a company registered in Estonia. Work in Estonia expects paying customers, revenue and a team
Kind of business	Innovative in at least 1 of 3 ways: new to the Netherlands; new technology in production, distribution or marketing; or a new way of working and organising	Innovative, scalable and global. Restaurants, consultancies, import and distribution and other service businesses do not qualify	Technology-based, innovative and scalable, not restaurants or one-man consultancies; company no older than 10 years
Money to show (2026)	€1,766.77 gross a month × 12 = €21,201.24, in a Dutch account in your name, the facilitator’s account or a Dutch notary’s third-party account. Valid to 31 December 2026	€1,210 in the Helsinki area, €1,090 in 24 large municipalities, €1,030 elsewhere, net a month (€14,520, €13,080 or €12,360 a year), in your own bank account, for at least 1 year	D visa: €880 for each month of stay (€10,560 for 12 months), with 3 months’ income evidence. Residence permit: legal income of 4× the subsistence level, €880 a month, with 6 months’ evidence
Government fee per founder (2026)	€423	Statement free; permit €650 online, €800 on paper	Committee free; D visa €120; residence permit €380 at a mission, €350 in Estonia
Decision time	90 days by law; IND can extend this to a maximum of 6 months	Statement: up to 1 month on average. Migri: 2 weeks in most cases, 2 months at most by law	Committee: up to 10 working days. D visa: 30 days, extendable by up to 30. Residence permit: 90 days, then the card within 30
First permit	Up to 1 year; cannot be extended	1 year, or up to 2 years if your funds cover 2	D visa up to 365 days (two consecutive D visas: at most 548 days in 730); residence permit up to 5 years
What comes next	Self-employed permit on a points test. The facilitator’s declaration after at least 3 months’ mentoring scores 30 points per criterion. Up to 2 years, extendable; €423	Extension applied for in Finland: up to 4 years, granted only for the period your income is proven; €230 online, €430 on paper	Extension up to 10 years at a time, €350; the company must still fit the start-up definition
Family	Partner (both 21+, or 18+ if married while living abroad) and children. IND looks at the expected income in your business plan. Partner €254, child €85. The partner’s permit ends when yours does	Spouse and children under 18; both spouses 21+; extra net means for each. Spouse €750 online / €800 paper, child €400 / €430	Spouse and minor child can get a D visa on the same conditions. Income required for the spouse: €704 a month (D visa or residence permit); no figure for a minor child. The spouse’s permit is no longer than yours
Permanent residence	5 consecutive years; current purpose non-temporary (start-up and self-employed both are); A2 civic integration; income; €254; decision within 6 months	From 8 January 2026: 6 years after a continuous permit, B1 Finnish or Swedish and 2 years’ work history; or 4 years and at least €40,000 income in the last completed tax assessment. Apply in Finland	5 years on a temporary residence permit immediately before; B1 Estonian; income; Tervisekassa health cover; registered address; €185. D-visa time does not count
Where an Iranian applies	Dutch embassy in Tehran: MVV and residence permit together, by online appointment. Or the country where you may stay more than 3 months; no-MVV route if you are already in the Netherlands on a short-stay visa or visa-free	Enter Finland online, then identity at VFS Tehran within 3 months (5 working days for the fast track)	No Estonian visa office in Iran. D visa in Ankara (by exception) or Abu Dhabi, arranged in advance and while lawfully present there; or at PPA in Estonia, from 2 months to 30 days before a Schengen stay ends

The money rows measure different things. The Dutch figure is a gross monthly norm, 70% of the minimum wage with holiday allowance, held up front for the year. Finland’s figures are net means per month, held in your own account for at least a year. Estonia’s is an amount per month of stay for the D visa, or a rate of legal income for the residence permit. Work in Estonia and Startup Estonia still show older, lower amounts; the visa regulation sets €880.

Dutch facilitators are private organisations and may charge for their support, so budget for that on top of IND’s €423 fee. Dutch law also asks you to make it plausible from the start that you will meet the self-employed conditions within a year.

Business assessment and the team each country expects

In each country one body assesses the business and an immigration body decides the permit. In the Netherlands you first sign with a facilitator, an experienced organisation that mentors you. RVO, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, then advises IND on the facilitator, how innovative your start-up is, your step-by-step plan and your Trade Register entry. RVO keeps a list of facilitators who meet IND’s requirements, 31 on 14 October 2026; see choosing a Dutch facilitator.

Business Finland asks whether your business model, team and resources show potential for rapid international growth. Its statement may be at most four months old when each founder files with Migri. Estonia’s Startup Committee, an expert committee of the Ministry of the Interior, gives its evaluation within 10 working days of a complete application. Of the three, only Finland sets a team size and share.

Applying from Iran: appointments, documents and money

The Dutch embassy in Tehran is open, according to Netherlands Worldwide on 5 October 2026. It takes online appointments for an MVV, the provisional residence permit, together with the residence permit itself.

For Finland, you file in Enter Finland and then prove your identity at VFS Global in Tehran within three months. The fast track needs the fee paid online before you submit and the VFS visit within five working days. The VFS Tehran residence-permit appointment walks through that visit.

Estonia has no embassy in Iran. Finland represents Estonia there, but only for Schengen visas, so VFS Tehran does not take Estonian D visas. For the D visa, Ankara accepts non-residents of Türkiye by way of exception, and Abu Dhabi says any Estonian representation can take one. The mission must confirm your appointment in advance; the consular officer decides whether to take a non-resident’s application. You must be able to travel there and be lawfully present. The Estonian D visa without an Estonian embassy covers each mission’s rules.

Each document chain ends with that country’s own stamp, so choose the country before you pay for legalisation:

Netherlands: a sworn English translation made in Iran, then Iran’s Ministry of Justice, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Dutch embassy. The embassy charges €25 per document in 2026, in cash euros only, with no coins and no €200 or €500 notes. See legalising Iranian documents for the Netherlands.
Finland: an English translation, then Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then the Finnish embassy in Tehran.
Estonia: Iran is outside the Apostille Convention, so documents go through Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then an Estonian mission or the Consular Department in Tallinn. Tallinn works by post and charges €30 per document in 2026. D-visa documents must also be translated into Estonian or English.

Moving money from Iran follows the same EU rule for all three countries. Council Regulation (EU) 2025/1975 restored Articles 30 to 30b of Regulation 267/2012. A transfer to or from an Iranian person outside Iranian banks needs nothing below €10,000, prior written notification from €10,000 to under €40,000, and prior authorisation from €40,000. Linked transfers are added together. Transfers through Iranian banks or bureaux de change are prohibited unless they fall in an authorisable category.

Family, the second permit and permanent residence

The Dutch start-up permit cannot be extended, so to stay you move to the self-employed permit, which is scored on points. A positive declaration from your facilitator after at least three months’ mentoring earns the full 30 points on each criterion. The self-employed permit after a start-up year explains the scoring.

A Finnish extension is applied for in Finland and granted only for the period your income is proven. Business Finland checks that your product has moved on and that commercial operations have begun, as extending the Finnish start-up permit explains.

In the Netherlands, your partner’s permit expires on the same day as yours. In Finland, family members get an unrestricted right to work, and a spouse who files within two days of you joins your fast track; otherwise the family case faces a nine-month legal maximum. In Estonia, the income required for your spouse is 80% of the founder’s rate, €704 a month in 2026, and a spouse on a residence permit can work without extra registration.

For Dutch permanent residence, your current purpose of stay must be non-temporary, and IND counts both start-up and self-employed residence as non-temporary. In Finland, running your own business counts as work history, and the start-up permit is a continuous permit in law, so its years count. You apply from inside Finland, and your residence counts as uninterrupted if you have spent at least half of the permit’s validity there. In Estonia, time on a D visa does not count. The detail is in Dutch permanent residence, Finnish permanent residence and Estonian permanent residence and citizenship.

Matching a route to your company

Start from the row that rules you out.

You are a solo founder. Finland needs at least two founders who all move there. Neither IND nor Estonian law sets a team size, although Work in Estonia expects paying customers, revenue and a team.
You run a service business or consultancy. Finland excludes it, and Estonia names restaurants and one-man consultancies as outside its route. In the Netherlands, RVO judges whether it is new to the Netherlands or uses new technology or a new way of organising.
A backer holds the money. The Dutch rules let the facilitator hold the funds or finance your stay. Finland wants the money in your own bank account. See Dutch start-up proof of funds.
You have no Estonian company yet. The D visa does not need one, but the residence permit does. Iranian citizens’ e-Residency applications filed after 1 October 2025 are not reviewed, unless the applicant has lived in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland for three years or has permanent economic activity in Estonia. See registering an Estonian company without e-Residency.

Aval Visa helps founders prepare for any of the three. We check your team and business against each country’s published criteria, plan the order of translation and legalisation, and prepare the file and the evidence of funds. You and your co-founders file your own applications, and IND, Migri or the Estonian authorities decide them. To talk through your company, start your assessment.

Common questions

Which is the best startup visa in Europe for a non-EU founder?

None of the three is ahead on every row. Start with team size, the kind of business and where you can apply from, because each can rule a route out on its own.

Do the Netherlands, Finland or Estonia require a minimum investment for a start-up permit?

Not in the Netherlands or Estonia. The €4,500 on IND’s self-employed page is for the Dutch-American and Dutch-Japanese treaty routes, and Estonia’s €65,000 and €16,000 investment rules do not apply to start-ups. In Finland, Business Finland weighs your resources as part of its statement, and the permit brings no investment or funding with it.

In all three, the money you show is for your own living costs, not company capital.

Can I apply from inside the country instead of from Iran?

Yes, all three allow it, each with a condition. If you are in the Netherlands on a short-stay visa or visa-free, IND will not reject the application for lack of an MVV when every other condition is met. Finnish law lets founders and their families apply for the first permit from Finland, but without the fast track.

In Estonia, you can apply to PPA for the D visa while on a Schengen visa, between two months and 30 days before that stay ends.

Is Finland changing its start-up permit?

The current rules apply. Government bill HE 216/2026 reached Parliament’s Administration Committee on 7 October 2026 and, as of 14 October, had no committee report or vote. The government proposes that, if Parliament passes it, the law take effect on 12 January 2028, with pending applications decided under the current rules. The Finnish start-up permit bill covers what it would change.

Sources

Checked October 2026.

This article is general information, not legal advice, and it describes published official rules rather than any individual case.

Startup visas in Europe compared: the Netherlands, Finland and Estonia (2026)

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