Lenox

I still have a Residence Card which I used today at my bank. I then produced my Spanish driving licence (laminated, photo and NIE number on it) and asked if the bank would consider a driving licence as an ID. The lady said 'no'.

In Spain you are meant to carry ID and this is fine as the rest of Europe has ID cards which are legal in Spain. There's just one country that doesn't... and citizens of that country... if they don't have a Spanish Residence Card (which is now no longer issued after the European Union agreed with some mind-bogglingly stupid anti-ID cretins - no prizes for guessing from where they came), must carry a passport. Which is, of course, ID.

Spain has decided to make a pig's dinner of this, hence newcomers are now supposed to go on to a European Register (nearest city) and with the bit of paper from there, plus your handy passport or continental ID, you can then get on the town hall padrón where... you can start on the road to getting whatever local papers and permits might be necessary.

As far as being 'stopped', you could show someone a photocopy or a fotocópia compulsada but the police would want you to return with the original document.

Mitzyboy

As we know in Spain whats OK for one isn't OK for another. As I said, I have used nothing but my driving licence since I've been here, and that includes banks, evidence of credit card and by the guardia when stopped on the road

Fred James

That is true but it is no longer an offence not to carry ID - it used to be.

You can be detained until you can prove your identity but you can no longer be arrested and fined.

That said, it would be pretty stupid not to carry some form of ID.

In the absence of UK ID cards then the simplest option is a photo driving licence - either UK or Spanish. If you don't drive then you have a potential problem and may have to resort to a passport.

At the end of the day, the only totally legal and acceptable form of ID for UK citizens is a valid, original, passport.

scampicat

We still have our residency cards at the moment, they don't expire until 2010.

I always carry our passports anyway - I thought that was the law.

One thing I am fed up with, and I never will get used to it, (for all people saying 'well, this is Spain' ) is people like the Guardia or the Ayuntamiento just making up the rules as they go along. Why can't they a) know the rules, b) stick to them and c) apply them the same to everybody?