Veterinary practice in Estonia: the veterinarian's professional activity licence

In Estonia, veterinary services may be provided only by a qualified veterinarian who holds a professional activity licence granted by the Agriculture and Food Board (Põllumajandus- ja Toiduamet, PTA)³⁸. The veterinarian works as a self-employed person or through a company that has a contract with them⁴. This page explains what the Veterinary Act (veterinaarseadus) requires, which documents are filed, the state fee and the authority's time limit.

Information as of 11 November 2026. Every numbered statement of this page was checked in the official text named below and re-checked by a second reviewer on 2026-11-11. The page is general information, not legal advice; the authority decides on every application.

What the activity is

The Veterinary Act defines the veterinary service as the treatment, prevention and diagnosis, including laboratory diagnosis, of an animal disease and other procedures necessary for ensuring animal health and welfare¹. The Act regulates, among other things, the bases of the professional activities of a veterinarian².

A "veterinarian" within the meaning of the Act is a person with a qualification in veterinary medicine who holds the professional activity licence required for providing the veterinary service³. The veterinarian provides the service personally, either as a self-employed person (FIE, füüsilisest isikust ettevõtja) or via an undertaking that has a contractual relationship with the veterinarian⁴.

What is not covered by this licence:

• The Veterinary Act has a separate activity licence (tegevusluba) for certain establishments and activities, listed by reference to EU Regulations (EU) 2016/429 and (EC) No 1069/2009; it entitles operation only in the establishment named in it (see section 6)⁵.
• Other permits that a practice may need, for example a veterinary pharmacy activity licence (a separate licence for which the State Fees Act sets its own fee)⁶, are outside this page; whether they apply is specified for the client's case.

The legal act and the authority

• The act: Veterinary Act (Veterinaarseadus, abbreviated VS), Chapter 2 "Professional activities of a veterinarian" (§§ 11–23). The wording in force today has been in force since 1 October 2026⁷.
• The authority: the Agriculture and Food Board decides whether to grant, suspend, revoke or refuse to grant a professional activity licence⁸.
• Term: the professional activity licence is granted for an unspecified term⁹. A licence that was valid when the current Act entered into force remains valid unless it is suspended, revoked or terminates under the Act¹⁰.
• The register: the national register of veterinarians (riiklik veterinaararstide register), whose controller is the Agriculture and Food Board¹¹. One purpose of the register is to give consumers information on veterinarians who hold the right to provide the veterinary service, and it contains the details of each professional activity licence and its validity¹².

Who must apply

Anyone who wants to provide the veterinary service in Estonia as a veterinarian must hold the professional activity licence³.

The qualification is obtained by completing a veterinary medicine curriculum at the Estonian University of Life Sciences (Eesti Maaülikool) or at an appropriate educational institution abroad; a qualification obtained outside Estonia is recognised under the Recognition of Foreign Professional Qualifications Act and the Veterinary Act¹³.

Exemption named by the Act: a person who holds a veterinary qualification from an EU Member State, a European Economic Area (EEA) contracting state or Switzerland may provide the veterinary service in Estonia temporarily without the licence, under Chapters 3 and 31 of the Recognition of Foreign Professional Qualifications Act¹⁴.

Requirements for the applicant

Whether capital, own-funds, management, anti-money-laundering (AML/CFT) or IT/outsourcing requirements apply is specified for the client's situation. The requirements for the veterinarian include the following.

• Qualification: a qualification in veterinary medicine as described above¹³. If the curriculum was completed in a country outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, the Estonian University of Life Sciences gives an opinion on it within 40 working days, and if the curriculum differs considerably, the applicant may take an aptitude test or complete upskilling¹⁶.
• Grounds for refusal: the Board refuses the licence if false information was knowingly given, if a court judgment depriving the person of the right to provide the veterinary service is in force, if the qualification does not match the required one, if the applicant works in a general or veterinary pharmacy or for a holder of a medicinal products wholesale or manufacturing licence (Medicinal Products Act § 43 (7)), or if the applicant is an official veterinarian prohibited from this secondary activity under the Civil Service Act¹⁷.
• Ongoing duties once licensed: follow the code of professional ethics and good veterinary practice; complete professional upskilling at least once in five calendar years; keep the required records for three years¹⁸. The applicant and the veterinarian must submit data to the register, and changes must be reported without delay¹⁹. Upskilling data is filed for each five-year period by 31 January of the following year²⁰.
• Supervision: the Board may suspend the licence, for example for a material breach of law, breach of professional ethics, failure to keep register data up to date or repeated breach of the rules on medicinal products²¹.

Documents filed with the application

The applicant submits to the Agriculture and Food Board²²:

1. the application;
2. a curriculum vitae with the data listed in VS § 13 (1) 2);
3. a copy of the document certifying the qualification in veterinary medicine;
4. a copy of the document certifying professional upskilling — not required if the licence is applied for within five years of obtaining the qualification²³.

Additional documents by origin of the qualification:

• EU, EEA or Switzerland: items 1–3 and, where the person has one, the data of the European Professional Card²⁴.
• Other countries: in addition to items 1–4, the veterinary medicine curriculum of the institution that issued the qualification document²⁵. If another EU/EEA state or Switzerland has already recognised the qualification and the person has three years of work experience there, also a document certifying that experience and the right to practise there²⁶.

The application may be submitted electronically with a digital signature or in another similar secure way²⁷.

State fee and processing time

• State fee: EUR 70 for reviewing the application for a veterinarian's professional activity licence, paid before the application is submitted²⁸.
• Confirmation of receipt: for EU/EEA/Swiss and other foreign qualifications, the Board confirms receipt within three working days²⁹.
• Decision: the Board decides to grant or refuse the licence within 20 working days after receiving the documents and information required for the decision; in the case of VS § 14 (5), it may extend the time limit to 60 working days, informing the applicant and giving the reason³⁰.

The time limit runs from the receipt of the documents and information required for the decision³⁰. These are the time limits set by law, not a promise of a date or of the outcome.

For comparison, the separate activity licence for establishments under VS § 25 is submitted to the Agriculture and Food Board via the e-service environment of the Agricultural Registers and Information Board (PRIA), carries no state fee and is decided within 90 days³¹.

What LexorCorp Global OÜ does and how to order

LexorCorp Global OÜ offers this work under its general row "Activity licence application documentation", for a licensed activity that has no page of its own on the site: the requirements of the act are checked against the client's situation from the official text, the documents are drafted and the application is assembled; the row's scope also names the submission through the Register of Economic Activities and the written follow-up of the authority's questions³². For this licence the act names the Agriculture and Food Board as the recipient of the application²², and the applicant is the veterinarian personally, so how the application is submitted is specified for the client's case.

• Price: from €3,500 for the standard scope; no VAT is added³³.
• The state fee (EUR 70) is not included and is paid by the client³³.
• Not included: legal advice, audit and tax advice. LexorCorp Global does not and cannot promise that the licence will be granted, a date, or any decision of the authority; the decision is the Agriculture and Food Board's alone.

Order: Activity licence application documentation.

Sources

1. Veterinaarseadus § 12 (2) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
2. Veterinaarseadus § 1 (1) 1) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
3. Veterinaarseadus § 12 (1) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
4. Veterinaarseadus § 12 (3) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
5. Veterinaarseadus § 25 (2) and (5) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
6. Riigilõivuseadus § 279 (heading) — text in force from 01.11.2026 (RT I, 21.10.2026, 10); § 261^29 added RT I, 30.06.2023, 1 in force 01.07.2023
7. Riigi Teataja act header; Chapter 2 heading — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
8. Veterinaarseadus § 12 (4) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
9. Veterinaarseadus § 12 (5) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
10. Veterinaarseadus § 114 — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
11. Veterinaarseadus § 21 (1), (3) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
12. Veterinaarseadus § 21 (2) 1), (6) 4) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
13. Veterinaarseadus § 11 (1) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
14. Veterinaarseadus § 22 — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
16. Veterinaarseadus § 15 (3), (5) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
17. Veterinaarseadus § 16 (4) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
18. Veterinaarseadus § 19 (1) 2), 4), 5) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
19. Veterinaarseadus § 21 (4), (9) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
20. Veterinaarseadus § 21 (10) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
21. Veterinaarseadus § 17 (1) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
22. Veterinaarseadus § 13 (1) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
23. Veterinaarseadus § 13 (2) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
24. Veterinaarseadus § 14 (1) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
25. Veterinaarseadus § 15 (1) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
26. Veterinaarseadus § 15 (7) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
27. Veterinaarseadus § 13 (4) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
28. Riigilõivuseadus § 261^29 (1); Veterinaarseadus § 13 (3) — text in force from 01.11.2026 (RT I, 21.10.2026, 10); § 261^29 added RT I, 30.06.2023, 1 in force 01.07.2023
29. Veterinaarseadus § 14 (2), § 15 (2) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
30. Veterinaarseadus § 16 (1), (2) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
31. Veterinaarseadus § 26 (1), (4), (6) — text in force from 01.10.2026 (RT I, 30.06.2026, 47)
32. LexorCorp Global price list and service description (price list)
33. LexorCorp Global price list and service description (price list)

Official sources

The laws this article names, each linked to its official text, as read on 9 October 2026. For the Estonian acts we read the English translation in Riigi Teataja; the legally binding text is the Estonian one.

• State Fees Act — Riigi Teataja, English translation

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