Spanish NEI Number

CantThinkOfANam

Hi all,

Just wondering if anybody here has ever applied for an NIE tax number for Spain? I am living down there and I need to get one in order to buy a car.

I was told that I could also apply for one from the Spanish embassy in Dublin, anybody have any knowledge of this?

Thanks for any replies;)

Dannyboi3k

As far as I know, you have to go to the police to get the forms, or town hall and get them stamped by the police and at the town hall where you pay a fee? i'm not 100% was meant to get one last year but never bothered, will be getting one this year..

And its NIE :P

CantThinkOfANam

Ooops sorry your right!

Just got talking to somebody in embassy and they said I have to apply in Spain;( Gonna have to join long queues now with the Moroccans!

Solair

The NIE procedures for EU-nationals have changed dramatically. They no longer issue a card. You'll just get an A4 certificate with your NIE number and address, which, at least in the Basque Country is issued immediately. Although, for most things, the Basque Country and Northern Spain in general is excellent.

Telephone your local police station and find out where you need to go and then call them and make an appointment. Turning up on spec will lead to serious disappointment and confusion.

You will need to bring:

At least two photocopies of your passport (bring more just in case!)
Proof of your Spanish address i.e. utility bills (bring several) or, the best proof a copy of the lease. Again, bring a few photocopies of these, just in case.

Finally, to avoid confusion and frustration, if you do not have fluent Spanish, bring someone who does, preferably a Spanish person who has some level of familiarity with dealing with Spanish bureaucracy i.e. someone who has been through university, or runs their own business or is generally fairly good at that kind of stuff!

Also, bring food, your iPod, a good book and something to drink as you will be waiting a LONG time in some cases. It's also advisable to bring an umbrella, as you can be stuck queuing outside sometimes.

I found the civil service people I dealt with very friendly but the security guys outside were like something from the Franco era! Gruff and scary was an understatement. There were even scuffles in the queue!!

Having an NIE is a huge advantage as it means you can do things like open a proper bank account without fuss and get yourself a Spanish debit card.

Also, if you are working in Spain, you really should have this as it's illegal otherwise!

It's basically the equivalent of a PPS number, but the version for non-Spanish nationals. So, you will need it to pay tax / contribute to welfare / use healthcare etc.

It's also very worth finding out where your local social security office is and registering as this will give you proper access to Spanish healthcare (if you are working there).

Using your European health insurance card is not a long term solution as if you are not on the Irish system and resident here , it will eventually stop working. You can also be sure that there'll be tightening up on these things too as both Ireland and Spain are seriously cash strapped at the moment and need to get all the tax / welfare loopholes ironed out.

One final tip, get yourself a Spanish driving license. This will contain your photograph and NIE number and can be used as ID.

As I am sure you are aware, they require ID for all sorts of random things, but particularly for making credit/debit card transactions. While Chip and PIN is *finally* being completely rolled out in Spain this year, I have found that a lot of places will still demand your ID even though they're processing the card by Chip and PIN.

It just makes life much easier to actually have a credit-card sized driving license in your wallet than having to lug around your passport.

Also, Irish driving licenses, particularly the older hand-written ones, can get quite a strange reaction from the traffic police and just about anyone else! I had a car hire place in Italy burst out laughing at mine.

mike kelly

CantThinkOfANam wrote: »

Ooops sorry your right!

Just got talking to somebody in embassy and they said I have to apply in Spain;( Gonna have to join long queues now with the Moroccans!

where in Spain are you going to? usually there is a separate office to deal with eu nationals only and the queue should be 30 minutes max.
Moroccans are extremely dangerous, take great care if you come into contact with them.

Solair

mike kelly wrote: »

where in Spain are you going to? usually there is a separate office to deal with eu nationals only and the queue should be 30 minutes max.
Moroccans are extremely dangerous, take great care if you come into contact with them.

In my experience of the system, certainly in the North of Spain, there is only one office for everyone. However, they make appointments by phone so, your wait time shouldn't be that long if you turn-up on time and make an appointment in advance. I had to wait 2 weeks for an appointment in Navarra and I heard similar stories in Bilbao.

Just make 100% sure that you bring the required photocopies as they can be really nasty about refusing point blank to copy anything and just sending you home. The forms are also available online.

The offices are fairly intimidating by any standards i.e. you can expect to be stuffed into a small waiting room. We had to queue in the RAIN for ages. They also x-ray your bags and they've pretty heavy-weight armed security outside.

If you can apply in the embassy in Dublin, it might not be a bad idea.

I get the impression that things are worse in the busier areas of the South of Spain where there is a bigger influx of immigration from North Africa, but also where you have thousands of British, Irish, German, Dutch etc expats living.

In Madrid, and the Northern Spanish autonomias e.g. Basque Country etc things are a little calmer and more organised. At least, that has been my experience of dealing with the Spanish bureaucracy anyway.

The whole process for EU citizens is little more than a minor form filling exercise. All they do is enter your details on a database and issue the number on a cert.

In Navarra anyway, you had to make payment on the day in a local bank by giro slip. They advised us to pay, go have a cup of coffee somewhere and come back to pick up the certificate. There was really no delay at all.

The key things though:
1) Bring a Spanish speaker as you are likely to be encountering frustrated police and civil service staff dealing with more people than they can cope with. Tempers of staff and people being held in queues can flare sometimes.
2) Make an appointment, do not turn up on spec or you will be disappointed and very frustrated.
3) Photocopy EVERYTHING and bring multiple copies and bring more documentation than you need. Some of the civil servants can be really nasty about insufficient documentation.
4) Bring lunch!

This is the form you will need to complete EX 14 BIS

http://www.conpapeles.com/formularios/ex14bis.pdf

You can complete it and print it in that PDF (obviously do not fill in the NIE number bit yourself!)

1er Apellido : (Surname)
2o Apellido : (second surname, if you have one, if you don't leave it blank)
Nombre : First name. However, it's advisable to put in your two first names as it keeps things filed correctly if you have a common name. E.g. "Patrick John"

I know a few people who managed to think that 1er apellido was their first name and 2o apellido was second name and this caused massive confusion when they were trying to apply for other things later on.

You also need to fill in your mother's first name (Nombre de la madre) and your fathers first name (Nombre del padre)
If, for any reason, you don't know one of these, just leave it blank.

Fysh

mike kelly wrote: »

where in Spain are you going to? usually there is a separate office to deal with eu nationals only and the queue should be 30 minutes max.
Moroccans are extremely dangerous, take great care if you come into contact with them.

Err....as someone who grew up in the Southern coast of Spain, I can attest to how easy it is to Not Suffer Bad Consequences from mere proximity to Moroccans.

I appreciate that personal experience will colour people's perspectives, but your statement about Moroccans taken alone is pretty xenophobic.

From my experience of getting the NIE sorted there was one office for everyone and the process was as tediously bureaucratic as anything involving local Spanish government. Solair's post is pretty much on the money and full of good advice.

CantThinkOfANam

Jesus thanks everybody for the fantastic information. I am living in Salou but I work in Reus airport for Ryanair (so tax not an issue for the moment anyway as its an Irish company).

The only reason I'm looking for an NIE number is to buy a car. Currently trying to decide whether to bring an Irish car down or to buy a car here. I think there might be a ferry service from Cork to Santander which will make bringing a car down very easy.

I think I'll have to find somebody in work who has gone through this process and that speaks Spanish.

mike kelly

Fysh wrote: »

Err....as someone who grew up in the Southern coast of Spain, I can attest to how easy it is to Not Suffer Bad Consequences from mere proximity to Moroccans.

I appreciate that personal experience will colour people's perspectives, but your statement about Moroccans taken alone is pretty xenophobic.

From my experience of getting the NIE sorted there was one office for everyone and the process was as tediously bureaucratic as anything involving local Spanish government. Solair's post is pretty much on the money and full of good advice.

well in Barcelona there is a separate office for EU foreigners. I don't mean to stigmatise all Moroccans, I have met some good people from there but in the last few years therehas been a huge influx of moroccan criminals to Barcelona - check out http://www.robbedinbarcelona.com/

Solair

You'd want to check out the time limits on how long you can be tax resident in Ireland btw.

I can't remember the exact timings, but if most of your work is in Spain / based out of Spain they will declare you (and your wife/husband, unless legally separated) as Spanish tax residents.

Worth checking out though. On the plus side, you will have access to full Spanish medical and other social services which are excellent by any standards. On the downside, tax and social insurance is steeper than Ireland.

Also, it's not *that* bad, and Irish taxes will be rising rapidly anyway so it might be worth doing at some stage soon.