People living in Washington DC, New York, London, Dublin and a host of other countries can now sign up to become an ‘e-Estonian’.

From today it is possible for people to get enhanced rights from Estonia without having to visit the country. Before April 1, it was only possible to sign up to be an e-Estonian by visiting the country.

As well as in Estonia itself, there are now 34 countries around the world where you can sign up to become an online resident of Estonia.

It is part of the country’s drive to create “the idea of a country without borders” and those who sign up are given a digital ID card by Estonian officials.

While signing up for the scheme doesn’t meant that you are an Estonian citizen, or have any rights to residency, it does grant the ability to register companies in the country as well as declaring taxes online, conducting online bank transfers and more.

“Our foreign representations will be technically ready to take your applications from 1 April 2015,” said an email to those who signed up to express interest in becoming an e-Estonian.

“In the first weeks you will still be required to come to the office twice (once to apply and then again to get the card). Starting from May 2015 aka soon it will become much easier: you can then fill out an application online ahead of time and only come in yourself once.”

Since the E-residency programme was started at the beginning of December, more than 1,000 people have travelled to the European country to sign up.

“Our hats go off to all 1,274 of you who already have visited our Police and Border Guard offices in Estonia to apply for e-Residency,” the email to those interested stated.

“It means that with the first 4 months there are already more than a thousand e-Residents out there.”

The process is said to take around four weeks to complete as background checks need to be made on those who want to become an unofficial Estonian.

However from May the process may speed up a little, as only one visit to a county’s Estonian embassy will be needed.

Next month will see the launch of an online application process.

E-residency for Estonia is still in the beta phase, but it offers a range of possibilities for those who want to sign up to take part.

Most notably the scheme appears to be best suited for entrepreneurs and those who want to start businesses.

The main benefits of the scheme are being able to register a business online, sign documents digitally, exchange encrypted documents, declare taxes online and receive digital prescriptions in pharmacies in Estonia.

The country wants to expand services further as the e-residency scheme develops.