NIE Numbers

If you want to do anything in Spain such as buy a car or buy or sell a property, you need an NIE number, which is simply an identification number for foreigners which is needed for just about any form you fill in. There are several ways people apply and get their NIE numbers, some do it by applying to their Spanish consulate in this country, others use a lawyer or other agent in Spain. We were fortunate that Dan, who had shown us around on our inspection trip, was happy to help sort this out with us. We were popping over to Spain for a few days and one of our tasks was to apply for our NIE number. All the forms are available on the internet and you can get English translations if you don’t speak Spanish, to ensure you are putting the right answers in the boxes, but Dan did all this for us and we just needed to check through and sign the forms when we met up. We then drove down to the immigration office in Almeria.

Now, I have read all sorts of stories about how long you can be queuing for you NIE number but we were either very lucky, or Dan knows the right times to be going to the immigration office, either way we were given numbers 97 & 98 in the queue and when we checked they were already dealing with 94, so 10 minutes later we were at the relevant desk and Dan was handing over all our documents. We had been told we needed some passport photos, but Dan had said that they didn’t always ask for these, and we didn’t need them.

Within 10 minutes we were leaving the desk, our application forms duly stamped for processing and we had signed the relevant authority for Dan to collect them in 15 days. He also needed 9€ for each of our applications which is payable on collection, and that’s it – job done.