Getting an NIE.

Getting an NIE number.

So, before we start, this is the main reason we wanted to start a blog. If you don't have a clue what this is then please continue reading because it is very important and it will become more apparent. We read so many different things about getting an NIE number before we arrived in Spain and even during, what the process was, how long it would take and we can tell you that the way it worked for us had absolutely ZERO similarity to the ten plus blogs and pages that we read. This is our experience from trying to attain it in in Valencia. It may be different in other towns/cities.

What is an NIE number?

Basically an NIE number (Número de identidad de extranjero) is very similar to the national insurance number you are given in Britain when you turn sixteen. It basically is so you can pay Spanish taxes when you are working and it is also like an identity that the Spanish government 

 give its foreigners. Its almost the first step to residency in Spain.

What do you need it for?

A lot. you need an NIE number for so many things, anything that is long term you will be asked to provide your NIE as it shows that you are permitted to stay in the country to work and live etc. A few examples you will need an NIE number for:

• Renting a flat/Apartment
• Getting a job
• Opening a bank account
• Taking out a phone contract
• Buying a car

In fact you even need an NIE number to access the annual service for Valenbisi (Hire bikes). So as you can see it is very important. We are no experts on the matter and this is all from experience but as far as we are aware if you want to move to Spain, you will need a NIE. From what we know, once you have it you will always have it, it stays with you for life.

How do i get an NIE? (How it happened for us)

Ok, once again this is all from our experience as it was very different to what we read from blogs. So after a couple days of being there we planned a day to go to the police station and fill in our forms and receive an NIE, because that is how easy we thought it would be from what we had researched. We googled the closest police station and off we went. We arrived at one of the main police stations in Valencia which was also a prison, it was interesting, but anyway we walked into the tiny reception room and we asked the police officer if he spoke English to which he replied 'No' so we began to just throw words at him like 'NIE, application for nie' and Joey even said most of it in Spanish. The police officer didn't have a clue what we was trying to say so he went to the back and asked if anyone spoke English (we understood) and they all giggled and one of them finally stepped forward so we tried again asking about the NIE. She didn't understand and she thought we had lost it and wanted to report it as lost even though we were saying application. We ended up on the phone to someone who 'spoke better English' and we told him that we didn't want to file a report because we lost it but we actually wanted to apply for one and he understood. This was the start of us being passed around from station to station, person to person. The man on the phone said we need to go to Bailen police station as that is the place that can assign it to you. So we walked to Bailen police station, went to the reception and asked the police officer if he spoke English, once again we got the same stubborn reply 'NO'. We began to ask about NIE and he pointed to a piece of paper and it was a sheet of paper that was poorly translated and gave really unclear instructions. Basically the paper said, go online and book an appointment, but the website is in Spanish and hard to understand so we went back the next day and it was the same police officer. we shown him our phones and that we were struggling to do it and he clearly didn't want to help but he eventually snatched a phone from us and started to go through the process of booking us an appointment, speaking English as he was doing it, so he must of learnt quite a bit over night. He managed to book us an appointment and it was a month and half wait. From what we read, it takes a day maybe a couple of hours to get an NIE. Well not in Valencia and not at Bailen. 

We couldn't go a month and half without the option of doing anything or getting a job because we didn't have an NIE number. We needed to do something so we researched another police station that apparently assigned NIE numbers. Once again we went to that station and there was a foreign office but it was closed at the time and we was told to go back the next morning at nine. There we were at nine at the back of a queue. A woman came out and started shouting out names, these people had appointments so when the woman got to us she was reluctant to let us in but we did eventually get in and finally were seen to. We spoke to a man who didn't really speak English again and he said he couldn't do it and told us to go to Bailen. Because of the month and a half wait we said is there anywhere else in the city we can go and we were informed that we could get it at a station in Mislata but we would need to phone first. We left the station and phoned the station at Mislata. We explained what we wanted and a woman said on the phone 'yes come here and we can assign it to you'. Obviously we felt relieved and felt we were actually getting somewhere. When we arrived at the station a woman came to see us and said in Spanish, you need to pay, you need the forms, come back on Tuesday and you will get the NIE the following Tuesday. We had to research what the forms were and fill them in online (they are all in Spanish). There is a form with your details and another form is like a billing form and that is what you take to the bank and pay, approximately nine euro. Another thing we read was that you can't pay it at a desk it has to be at the machine, but you need to to be given the NIE number before you can pay and then you take a receipt or proof of payment back to the police station and then they can give you your NIE but again, that's not how it went.

After filling all the forms in and waiting a few days we went back to the station when we were told and sat in the waiting area. A couple hours had passed and people were coming in after us and being seen before us and it felt like we weren't even sat there, until our luck began to turn.

An English girl had came in with the headmistress of a school she had just got a job at and the teacher was helping her get the NIE. The girl came into the station, was there five minutes maximum in which we had a quick chat and she was called through and then another five minutes later she was out and done. all she had to do was go to the bank and pay. We were annoyed that we still hadn't been seen. Kindly the girl said to her headteacher that we needed the same thing as her and we weren't getting anywhere. So the headteacher who clearly had some connections with people came over to us and told us to go to the bank with them, unknowingly what was going on we followed them to the bank and we went to the desk and paid the nine or so euro for the NIE number which we read you could't do. After, the headteacher took us back to the police station and told us that they had closed for the day (at 10:30am) but she would speak to her friend and they would see what they could do for us. A couple of minutes later the same woman who had continuously walked past us to see someone else came up to us and took our forms and within a few minutes she was back and said you can pick up your NIE next week. So after almost 3 weeks of being passed around and 2 hours of sitting in the police station that day we had finally got our NIE within about 20 minutes, well we had to wait a week to pick it up, but it was done and it was all thanks to the girl and her headteacher, without them we assume we would of gone back the next week and sat there pointlessly for another 2 hours for nothing to happen. So yes, it is a really easy process, but will it be easy and quick? Probably not unless you know the right people.

How to get an NIE (without all the messing around we had)

For all these steps i would definitely recommend having a Spanish friend or colleague of some sort to help.

• Find the forms online, fill them in and print them off. (2 copies of each).
• Get a photo copy of your passport.
• Take the forms to the bank and pay.
• Go to the police station, give them your forms and collect the NIE when it is ready.

Whether it happens like that we can't assure it, but we can definitely say be careful what you read, we thought it was as simple as going to the police station, get the forms, fill them in at the police station, pay, receive NIE. As you can see that is not how it panned out. We don't think it was just us who had these problems either so yeah, make sure you know what you're doing. Hopefully this post will help you avoid the disaster we had at the start and get straight to it.