Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

Took about half an hour to get NIE in Murcia. Just took the pre-completed form (from the PDF file I linked in an earlier thread on this subject), passports, ordinary photocopies of these and utility bills to confirm address here. This was a couple of months ago. Sounds like your mileage varies depending on area.

The Ministerio del Interior site http://www.mir.es guide does not ask for certified copies, just plain copies.

Form EX14 available to fill in online and print off here http://www.mir.es/SGACAVT/modelos/ex...acion/ex14.pdf

Useful links on the MIR site, if you're having trouble navigating it:

http://www.mir.es/SGACAVT/guiatram/
http://www.mir.es/SGACAVT/guiatram/extranje.pdf
http://www.mir.es/SGACAVT/modelos/ex...documentacion/

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

Please check with your local office as to exactly what they require to get the NIE number. In Alicante, when we applied it was two photos, in Torrevieja it was 4, In Alicante it took about 2 weeeks from application, in torrevieja it took about 6 weeks.
Once you have got your NIE number and are asked for it on a form, if they want your passport number it MUST be the number on the passport when you applied for the NIE number. I fell foul of that as I had changed the passport before moving over here. The Spanish have the same passport number through their life, but we change ours in the UK, if they don't match they will reject applications. Keep your old passport!

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

Like I said, your mileage may vary depending on area, but the fact remains that no photos are required for a NIE, since you are physically there with your passport and there is nowhere to file these photos within the administrative systems for tracking NIEs.

The EX14 form has spaces for stamping, not photos.

I personally would just ask why and insist that they complete the paperwork there and then. There is also no reason to accept a delay for actually getting the NIE of more than a day or two and in most cases it should be dealt with there and then and within the hour. The bottleneck is putting your details into a computer system and getting a NIE number straight back out of it and usually only one, or two people will be able to do this in any one office and if they are at lunch, ill, or on holiday then you are screwed.

Take a close look at form EX14 and read all the fine print. You need your passport, proof of your address in Spain and (if they really insist on it) a document indicating your motives for applying for a NIE, be they economic, professional, or social. This is all enshrined in law.

Alternatively, you can dance whilst the bureaucrats call the tune - not something I am fond of doing when I have reason on my side.

Finally, I would add that my comments apply to EU nationals. A NIE for a non EU national requires a different form I believe and may well have more process behind it.

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

What do you do if you do not have an address in Spain to give - our apartment is a year away from completion. Whose address do you give for the nie? I apologise if someone has already answered this one. Cannot seem to keep up with all that needs doing and work40-50 hours a week and all the rest including home,children, other commitments etc etc.

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

Hi Carol Elizabeth,

Your right its in the script I sent we used the site office for Fadesa and that is shown on Tommy Smiths application. If you are using an agent then with permission you could use their office address.

Regards, ;)

John.

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

I have posted about this on various threads and people still say those official stamp boxes are for photos :D :D
If they dont know the Spanish text at the boxes they only have to Babelfish it to find out.

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

Try this thread which is back from December 2005 where a few of us compared NIE experiences - Like you, we got ours via the spanish consulate in London and they took about 6 weeks to arrive. I wouldn't be too worried that you haven't got it yet, give it another couple of weeks. When we got ours we were told they were sent to Madrid to be processed. I think the consulate website has details somewhere about where/who you contact if it doesn't arrive. Good luck!!1


http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=345342

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

Ok, having argued that you don't need photos and having been allocated a NIE without photos, I thought I would finally put this eternal question to rest and get the definitive answer (OK, so I'm an optimist :p ).

My source is the web site of the Ministerio del Interior wherein Section F of the page on Tarjetas de residencia y número de identificación (NIE), as applicable to EU citizens, clearly states:

So that means, completed application form EX14, passport, photocopy of passport and supporting documentary proof of the requirement for a NIE.

Note, ignore the section on "DOCUMENTACIÓN Y REQUISITOS" (Section C) as this clearly applies to "TARJETAS DE RESIDENCIA" and is over-ridden by the specific section on a NIE (Section F), in my opinion.

The above guide is a synopsis of the "Régimen comunitario" distilled from the "Normativa básica reguladora", so as far as I am concerned it is authorative and definitive.

Time for a :beer:

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

Yes, but that's for when you apply in Spain, when you apply at a consulate or Embassy in the UK they need photos. I think it's to do with confirming your ID; when you are presenting yourself in spain and standing in front of them, they can look at your English passport and see you are who you say you are; when you apply in the consulate, they have to look at you and confirm your photo is the person sat in front of them and they certify it as a true likeness and send it off with your passport photocopy and the other info.

So you do need photos when applying in the UK, but seems not so in Spain.

I wouldn't turn up without them when applying in the UK, they are very stringent at the London spanish consulate and if any part of their paperwork is not correct (or you don't bring an envelope with you) they tell you to go away and get one and you go to the back of the queue.

Someone was asking what you do if you don't have a spanish address. We used our english address and the numbers were sent to here but I have a feeling that is discouraged now. If you have absolutely no other option, give your UK address but otherwise have you any friends in spain or a lawyer that it could be sent to?

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

The original posts related to Spain, I believe. However, not wishing to be deliberately confrontational, but why do they need said photos?
They have your passport to look at and a photocopy of it. Again, why the photos?
Feel free to turn up with and supply additional photos, of course, but should you forget them, or turn up without them you should expect to be given a bloody good reason as to why they will not process your application without them.

I have yet to hear a good reason and encouraging rampant bureacracy and additional paperwork just because the people who administrate the system want "belt and braces", or to make people jump through unnecessary hoops to satisfy some perverse power-trip, are not good enough reasons in my book. ;)

The law is on your side. You have a right to this documentation enshrined within Spanish law and the Ministerio del Interior has clear requirements on which documents are required in order to obtain such. Unless I'm mistaken, the Spanish Consulate in London is also considered Spanish soil, right? ;)

It would be interesting if any applicant reading this thread, so inclined to do so, were to ask for the reasons behind the requirement for photographs, when they go to apply at the Spanish Consulate, in London and let us know if they come up with a satisfactory explanation. My money says they won't. :)

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

Hi Unexpat,

This discussion on the precise requirements for the NIE will run and run.

It is quite clear on the on the consulate website that you must bring 2 passport type photos in addition to your application form and passport plus photocopies.

Equally on the Ministry website it is opaque on what you must turn up with when applying in person in Spain.

Like you I dislike unnecessary bureaucracy but always feel disadvantaged by my lack of language skills so take the cowards way out and if the rumour mill says you need it then I take it just in case plus an extra photocopy just in case. The costs are three parts of b****r all and it makes the transaction smooth and I get what I want when I want it.

But look out on home soil where I will take on HMR&C or DWP just for the fun of the debate. We appealed Kath's State Pension award all the way to the commissioners since we felt it unjust and if I could find backing I would go to the EU court as well. Not so much for us but for married women like her denied a full pension, and now in need of that little bit extra, all because of changes way back in 1976 which were not widely publicised.

Regards, ;)

John.

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

Well you can bang on about your rights as much as you like, but there is (or was) one particular fearsome lady working at the spanish consulate in London who scares the Sh**te out of everyone who crosses her path. If you phone to enquire about anything she shouts 'read the website and do what it says'. I wanted to know whether I needed an appointment (some things at the consulate do require an appointment) and she just wasn't prepared to say yes or no (which would have been quicker) she just repeated, 'read the website' several times and then put the phone down and then would not answer it again for several minutes. I rang a couple of times because I needed information and you can't get a word in edgeways. The last time I rang simply to tell her she was about the rudest person I had ever dealt with and why was she working there when she clearly hated dealing with people. She just put the phone down. She won't enter into any conversation about anything at all. She's rude, intolerant and famous for insisting that you follow the rules to the absolute end. An acquaintance who is spanish married an english guy over here and he needed an NIE. She speaks fluents spanish and the woman was no more pleasant to her, just shouted as usual.

So by the time you have got to the stage of standing in a queue waiting to meet this woman in the flesh, you are not about to rock the boat about your rights and why they need a photo when they already have a copy of your passport. She would simply tell you to go away. Everyone who was waiting when we got our NIE had dealt with this woman at some point and was quaking in their boots that she wasn't going to do the NIE for some reason - there was a suited city broker type who in normal life you wouldn't expect to take any flak from anyone and even he said she was scary. One chap didn't have the photos and was sent away to get some.

I think she is like this because she knows you simply have to have the NIE and without her say so, you won't get one.

As it turned out for us, we didn't meet her in the flesh because there were two people dealing with NIE applications when I went there and a different person dealt with ours. Everyone else at the consulate was lovely. When we got our power of attorney done they were really helpful and the Consul, the most important bigwig there, who has to sign the power of attorney, was very friendly and cheerful and couldn't have been nicer.

I've no idea if the scary lady is still there... but I wouldn't advise anyone applying in London to turn up without photos if it still says on the website that they need them. You just won't get your NIE.

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

Hi John. It wasn't my intention to add to the length of this discussion, but indeed to try and shorten it. Nonetheless, we can probably agree that this is one of those things that never goes away in the long-run.
I have not looked at this, so of course your advice here should be heeded if you want your NIE, via this channel. I was merely curious for the sake of being devil's advocate as to why they needed these photographs and why wouldn't any normal person be curious as to what they do with personal data?We'll have to disagree here. I speak and read pretty fluent Spanish (being half-Spanish) and it seems extremely clear here.

As for the dragon referred to in Cindyp's post, well I would give her a hard time just as payback for all the hard times that people like her have given innocent members of the public. They would have to physically remove me from in front of her, or grant me an audience with her superior - even if it meant coming back another day to get my NIE. :D

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

Yeah, there's a lot of people who'd like to go back and give her a hard time, she's a complete cow!!!

:mad:

Re: lost n.i.e. number
 

I got my NIE two weeks ago in Ronda. I used my sister's address and just needed passport, the completed form and photocopies of each. No proof of address and no photographs. We parked right outside the office, waited about 4 minutes for one other person in front of us and it was all done in a few minutes more. "Come back for the number in three days", she said. We did and it was ready.

A pleasant introduction to Spanish bureaucracy! Although we will be living near Málaga, having heard horror stories about the Foreigner's Office there, we decided that Ronda would be a better bet.

McT