NIE MADE EASY

Just got my NIE and it was so easy.  I had read on this forum all the hassles other folk had and how much they spent.  Mine cost me £7.95 postal order. 

Go to your nearest Spanish Consulate or in my case Vice Consul which are in most UK cities.  They will help you with the form but do contact them and they will tell you what to bring which is a valid Passport, large stamped addressed envelope and £7.95 postal order.

It took 5 weeks in total, maybe longer in the summer but if  your not in a hurry it can save you a small fortune and a day wasted in a queue. 

Monica

Thanks for sharing the advice Monica.

We had a nightmare getting ours here and I know many others that went through a similar ordeal too.

Glad your experience was better

Justin

I wish I know this last year. It cost me 375 euros for 3 NIEs. 

My agent broke his promise & back out at the last minute not to  help me with the NIE & basically I had no choice & more or less been forced to use his lawyer to  get the NIEs. Had I known that I can unofficially complete the purchase of my villa without the NIE, I still would have the time to get the NIE myself instead of going through a very bad time with his lwayer to do the NIEs.

many lawyers fleece clients with extras such as NIE application or drafting powers of attorney etc and in particular multiple NIE applications - it make no difference to me if I am doing 1 or 3 and I don't increase my fee either!

That's why I am forever telling people to agree fee plus extras in advance - get it all in writing - then there are no nasty surprises.

Also NIE application is easy and can be done quite easily with a professional.

I actually had filled in the forms myself  & I gave them to the lawyer. It's because the agent backed out at the last minute & we had no choice except to give the lawyer an easy job but charged me hell of  a lot for them.  Also they told me that I needed the NIE to complete at the notary which is NOT true as I had to complete unofficially without the NIE as the lawyer messed up the NIE.

You can see why I`m very angry having to pay the lawyer for NOTHING as we could have done it ourselves. 1 of my daughters is fluent in Spanish.

We just did NIE for our daughter (she came over especially)... (was going to do it in London, but very expensive/plus she needed to sign things here too.)

Fuengirola Police Station:

MON- 0900hrs Walked in, filled in forms, got a ticket no from nice guy on desk.

Went to bank paid fee, went home (as app for 1200hrs)

Returned (a little early, and got seen straight away as lots hadn't turned up for their pre-booked apps)

Told to come back on Thurs.

THURS - 1000hrs - returned to Police station, went to Extranjeros desk, got cert.

Cost Eu16.  Very impressed! (Esp as my last nightmare experiences were having to que at 5am in the wet and cold when there was no pre-booking and it was 'first come first served') 

 I got mine in May of last year here in Malaga.

I can also report it was extremely easy, with no sign of the huges queues mentioned on various websites.

I went one day, queued for about 5-10 mins max, took the various forms. Filled them out in a cafe nearby, then went to the bank, handed over a few Euros and got my form stamped.

Queued again for 2-3 mins, handed the form over, got told to return 'on Friday' (it was Tuesday if I remember rightly).

I returned that Friday, didn't queue at all, showed them my forms and got given an A4 sheet of paper with the NIE code in the middle.

Pretty easy. It required a little bit of Spanish, but nothing too complex.

A few months later I did a similar thing to get the little green residents card. That was also pretty straightforward, and didn't involve much queueing.

One thing to note, here in Malaga at least, there was a really long queue at the police station I went to. However, it was for something different (visas for those coming from South America/marriage licences/or something). The point being that there was nobody at the police station to tell me the I didn't need to be in this queue. It was only after standing around for a few moments that I went to the front of the queue and was quickly waved past into the police station and towards a different room. To sum it up, there was a bit of confusion.... but at least now as I write in 2012... the demand for getting an NIE in Malaga seems minimal, takes 2-3 days, and doesn't involve anymore queuing than you would do in a Post Office for example in the UK.

 I know that it's extremely easy to get our own NIE with OUT having to use a lawyer. I even get my own residencia for 10 euros fee.

 That's why I'm VERY angry that I had to pay 375 euros for 3 NIEs because of the agent backing out his promise 2 weeks before my villa was to complete. That left me no choice except to use his lawyer. I can NOT trust any agent making promises anymore.