Getting a NIE in Spain: what it costs, where to go, and what you probably actually need

The NIE is the thing everybody mentions and nobody explains properly. It is not a residence permit, not a card, and not proof that you live here. It is a number, it costs 9.84 euros, and the application has to be resolved within five days. But if you are an EU citizen staying longer than three months, that bare number is not what you should be asking for. This piece sets out the three things people confuse, what each costs, and the order to do them in.

What the NIE is, and above all what it is not

NIE stands for Número de Identidad de Extranjero, the identity number for foreigners. That is exactly what it is: a number. A letter, seven digits, another letter.

You need it the moment you do anything in Spain that the state wants to attach a name to. Buying a house, putting a car in your name, signing an employment contract, paying tax, starting a business, sometimes just opening a bank account.

What it is not, and this is the misunderstanding that costs people the most time:

It is not a residence permit. A NIE does not give you the right to live or work in Spain.
It is not a card. You get an A4 sheet with a number on it, not a photo ID.
It is not registration with your town hall. That is the empadronamiento, an entirely different counter.
It does not expire. Your number stays your number. The paper it is printed on can go stale; the number cannot.

The official wording is that it is for foreigners who relate to Spain by reason of their economic, professional or social interests. That is deliberately broad. In practice: if somebody here has to put your name into a system, they want that number.

The three things people confuse

This is the heart of the article, and if it is the only thing you take away it will still have been worth reading.

1. The NIE. Form EX-15, 9.84 euros. A number, nothing more. For people who do business with Spain without living here: the second-home owner, the buyer, the heir.

2. The certificado de registro de ciudadano de la Unión. Form EX-18, 12.00 euros. This is what an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen needs when staying longer than three months. It is a green A4 or a small green card, it puts you in the Registro Central de Extranjeros, and your NIE number is printed on it. Apply for this and you do not need a separate NIE application.

3. The TIE. The Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero, a physical photo card. That is for non-EU nationals. For British residents since Brexit, this is the card they hold. 16.08 euros the first time, 19.30 to renew.

It usually goes wrong when somebody with an EU passport asks for a NIE at the counter, gets one, and finds out a year later that they were never registered as a resident. They had the number. They did not have the registration.

Moving here on an EU passport? Skip step 1 and go to step 2.

What it costs

The fee is called modelo 790, código 012. You generate the form on the Policía Nacional’s own portal, print it and pay it at a bank. You do not need an account there. The receipt goes in with your application, so you pay before your appointment.

These were the amounts on the Policía Nacional’s fee page on 10 October 2026:

NIE on your own application: 9.84 euros
EU citizen registration certificate (also the family member card and the Brexit TIE): 12.00 euros
TIE, first issue: 16.08 euros
TIE, renewal: 19.30 euros
TIE, long-term residence: 21.87 euros
Certificates or reports on request: 7.31 euros
Autorización de regreso (return permit): 10.72 euros

A warning about that list. The police page carries no date and no reference to the state gazette for these amounts. They can change without anyone announcing it. The form you generate yourself prints the amount in force, and that is the one that counts. Treat our list as a guide and the form as the truth.

Note too that 790/012 is not the same as 790/052. The latter belongs to Oficina de Extranjería procedures. The form itself shows which one you need.

Applying for the NIE: form, papers, counter

The form is the EX-15, in duplicate, completed and signed. Its official name is Solicitud de asignación de NIE y certificados.

The police portal lists only two items for this procedure: the EX-15 and proof of payment. In practice every counter also wants your passport plus a copy, and you have to state why you need the number. That last part is in the requirements: you must communicate your reasons. Consulates usually ask for something supporting it, such as an arras contract for a house purchase or an internship agreement.

So always take more than the two items listed on the site. Coming back a second time costs you weeks.

There is one hard condition: you must not be in Spain irregularly at the time of the application.

Where you file it:

In Spain, with the Dirección General de la Policía, in practice through an Oficina de Extranjería or a police station with a foreigners’ desk. In person, or through a representative with a power of attorney.
From abroad, at a Spanish consulate. They forward it to the Comisaría General de Extranjería y Fronteras in Madrid. Slower, but you do not have to fly for it.
Online only if you are a citizen of the EU, the EEA, Switzerland or Andorra and hold a digital certificate.

The green certificate: within three months, and then you are done

Staying longer than three months means registering in the Registro Central de Extranjeros. The deadline is explicit: within three months of your date of entry into Spain.

Form EX-18, 12.00 euros, filed at the Oficina de Extranjería of your province or otherwise at the competent police station. You have to go in person.

What you have to show is set out in article 7 of Real Decreto 240/2007. You fall into one of these groups:

Employed or self-employed in Spain.
A student, with health insurance covering you here and a declaration of sufficient means.
Sufficient means to support yourself and your family, plus health insurance covering you here.

That last point is the one that matters for pensioners and winter residents. Various figures circulate for what counts as sufficient; we could not find an official number we can date and stand behind, so we are not quoting one. Ask at your appointment or ask a gestor.

Two things almost nobody knows. The certificate is issued on the spot, you walk out with it the same day. And it has no expiry date and does not need renewing. That is convenient, but it has a sting in the tail at the town hall, which we come back to in the piece on the empadronamiento.

After five continuous years of legal residence you can apply for a certificate of permanent residence. That is article 10 of the same regulation.

The cita previa, and the trade that has grown around it

You get in nowhere without an appointment. The cita previa is booked on the Administraciones Públicas appointment portal, and it is free.

Watch the web address. A variant circulates that does not exist; the working official entry point is the Administraciones Públicas portal. If you land on a site charging for the appointment itself, you are with a middleman.

And there is a problem there. A trade has grown around these free appointments, big enough to attract police operations. What is known about it, from press reports and professional bodies rather than any official register:

In 2023 the Policía Nacional arrested seventy people in seventeen towns for illegally reselling appointments.
In November 2024 twenty-one arrests followed in Alicante, Murcia and Valencia, a case that also involved forged documents in residence files.
In 2026, during the regularisation round, prices in Andalusia reached six hundred euros per appointment.

Why you should not buy one, whatever you think of the practice: it is in somebody else’s name or on false details. At the counter it can be cancelled on the spot, and the money is gone.

Hiring a gestor to handle the file is a different thing and entirely normal. The difference is what you are paying for: somebody’s work, or a place in a queue that is supposed to be free.

Where to go in this province

Here we have to be honest about what we do not know.

Alicante province has one Oficina de Extranjería, in the city of Alicante, plus a number of police stations with a foreigners’ desk, among them Benidorm, Dénia and Torrevieja.

We are not giving addresses. We checked five commercial appointment sites and they give three different streets for the same town. That was true for Benidorm, for Dénia and for Torrevieja. None of those sites is official, all of them earn money from appointments, and not one address could be checked against a police source.

The address appears in the appointment portal itself, at the moment you pick your province and your procedure. That is the only place it is right, and it is where you have to go anyway. Take it from there and trust no list, including ours.

And look carefully at which counter you need. The town hall is for your registration as a resident. The police are for your number and your certificate. The two get mixed up constantly, and each will send you to the other without ceremony.

Five days, and what silence means

This is the part almost every guide skims, and it is exactly the part that sets your rights.

The procedure must be resolved within five days of the application entering the register of the competent body. Not five working days after your appointment: five days after registration.

And then the sting: if you hear nothing, your application has been refused. The text says the application shall be understood to have been rejected. Silence here is not good news and not a delay. It is a no, and the clock on appealing it is already running.

You can appeal: a recurso de reposición within one month, or the administrative courts within two months.

In practice most people walk out with their paper or hear within days. But if you have heard nothing for three weeks and assume it is still being processed, you are probably already past your deadline. Call, or have somebody call.

The order that works

If you are moving here, this is the chain. Each step needs the one before it.

1. Number and registration. EU passport and staying longer than three months: go straight to the EX-18, the green certificate. Only doing business, not moving: the EX-15.
2. Register at your town hall, the empadronamiento. Free, and you need it for almost everything after this.
3. Healthcare, driving licence, school, tax. Every one of those counters asks for steps 1 and 2.

A common question is which comes first, the certificate or the padrón. It varies by municipality and by desk; some will register you on your passport alone, others want to see your certificate. Ask your own town hall before you book anything, because losing an appointment here costs weeks, not days.

If you are going to work or set up on your own, the next step is working on the Costa Blanca, and for remote workers there is the separate route of the digital nomad. If you are buying, the NIE is built into the steps of a purchase.

Frequently asked questions

What does a NIE cost? A fee of 9.84 euros, as at 10 October 2026. The form you generate prints the amount in force.

How long does it take? The procedure must be resolved within five days of the application being registered.

What if I hear nothing? Your application counts as refused. One month for a recurso de reposición, two months for the courts.

Does a NIE expire? The number does not. The document it is printed on can go out of date.

Can I live or work in Spain with a NIE? No. It is only a number.

I hold an EU passport and I am staying more than three months. What do I need? The certificado de registro de ciudadano de la Unión, form EX-18, 12.00 euros, within three months of arrival. Your NIE is on it.

Do I have to renew that certificate? No, it has no expiry date.

Can I arrange it from home? The NIE yes, through a Spanish consulate. The certificate no, that is applied for in person in Spain.

Can somebody do it for me? For the NIE yes, with a power of attorney. For the certificate you have to go yourself.

What does an appointment cost? Nothing. If a site charges for the appointment itself, it is a middleman.

Is the NIE the same as the empadronamiento? No. The NIE comes from the police, the padrón from your town hall.

And the TIE? That is the physical card for non-EU nationals, British residents among them. 16.08 euros the first time.

About the authorLeonie

Leonie lives on the Costa Blanca. She writes about daily life on the coast: the markets, the walks and everything you only discover once you actually live here.