NIE documents

December 22, 2022
Last update on May 12, 2023

Congratulations, if you are here you are on your way to make your NIE. Good. Now we will deal with the NIE documents – the documents you will need to provide on that beautiful day.  Remember that picture on Step 3 of Getting a NIE in Spain step by step? Here it is again:

As pointed on the page, the documents you will need are:

Modelo de solicitud EX-15 y copia

Which means ‘Form EX-15 filled and a copy of it’. The link to this form is right below the request; it is in one of the tabs you opened. It is a simple 3-page form where you will fill your data. You can fill it online and print two, instead of doing a copy.

By the way, it is very easy to find places to print and copy in Spain. Most stationery shops do it. All you need to do is avoid the siesta times, which is usually around 14:00 to 17:00 and I’m sure you’ll have no problem finding a place near you to print / copy all your documents and forms.

I put below a picture of the 3 pages of this form as it is today (may 2022) for reference. Notice that this can change over time.

A tip: when we did it for my husband, we stated on item 4.2 that we needed a NIE for economic reasons: to buy a house in Torremolinos. The Police attendant asked for the address of the house, but we didn’t have it yet as we were still looking for a place. So, as per her recommendation, we changed the reason for a NIE right there, on spot, to be ‘in order to open a bank account’. It worked.

Original and copy of your passport

Here there was a little difference for Europeans and non-Europeans. Exactly as explained on the official website, my husband only needed his passport and a copy of the page which has his picture, while I needed to provide a copy of every page of my passport.

Now, silly me had already taken a full copy of the passport before going to Spain, anticipating that I would need to provide it at some point, but obviously that copy didn’t have the stamp with my date of entry in Europe. Tsc tsc, the police called me back one day after I had my appointment to present a new copy of my passport, containing that stamp. Quite nice of them giving me a second chance, instead of asking me to book another date and restarting the process. Thank you, Malaga Police!

Proof of payment

This is also a form, for which the link is right below the request as well, and should be the other tab you opened. This form is a bit different from the EX-15, though; this one needs to be filled online and is generated automatically, after the information is entered.

The first part is self-explanatory – name, passport number, address in Spain (even if it is a temporary address, it doesn’t matter) and so on. On the second part, make sure that you choose ‘Asignación de Número de Identidad de Extranjero (NIE) a instancia del interesado’ as your option, as shown below. As soon as this option is marked, the price to be paid will magically appear in the board ‘Ingreso’ (payment) down on the page. On the day of this writing (may 2022), the cost of a NIE is € 9.84.

Fill the name of the city where you will pay this fee in “localidad”, the “fecha”(date) and mark the bullet “en efectivo” (in cash). This means you will pay in a bank, not with automatic debt from a bank account (which doesn’t seem to work very well, according to a person I asked in the police).

After filling it and the captcha, press ‘Descargar impreso rellenado’ (Dowload filled form) and the document will autogenerate. Save it and you are ready to print 😉 . It works like magic. The form will look a bit different from the online version and will have many repetitive pages, but print them all anyway. One copy will stay with the bank, one with you and another with the police. After printing, you will have to take this form to a bank and pay, all before your appointment date.

Now, banks can be tricky. Some just accept payments from their own clients, some accept payments from non-clients only on specific days of the week and even then just during specific hours of the day and specific days of the month. It is worth to check around the banks on your location and see where you can effectively pay this form.

Tip: once I managed to pay a fee like this on an ATM of a bank whose cashier would not accept my payment because I wasn’t a client. Worked for me, but I don’t know if it is always the case. You cannot pay it directly to the police. (Why? Aren’t they trustworthy??) Spain, Spain.

So, as a recap, your check list for NIE day should be:

– Book the appointment (and take the proof with you, printed or on a screenshot on the phone)
– Fill both forms
– Print 2 copies of EX-15 and 1 of the fee form
– Copy the passport
– Pay the fee in a bank (any bank you can)
– Don’t forget to take the passport and everything you printed/copied with you.

Nice! Put each thing on a plastic of the nice file folder you bought in one of the many visits you did to the stationery shop, to impress the police with your organization (good to have their sympathy, come on). If you need, go back to book your NIE appointment; if you already have the time, go to the police on the booked day, impress, see them printing your NIE right in front of you and prepare yourself for what comes next: they may or may not give you the NIE on this day that was going so well.

At least as per my vast experience of doing two NIEs, both in Malaga in 2022, the NIE doesn’t get delivered on the same day it is made. But… I’ve read that this has changed, and that now they are giving it right away. Good news, right?! Things are improving. We had to book new appointments to collect the fellas a few days later, but after the first appointment is done, the others are easy.  Instructions for the pick up are in the same page as for booking the NIE, in case you need it.

Now that this is over, let’s go to the next document, which is… the Padrón!

Next: The Spanish Padrón