Ask around Valladolid where “extranjería” is and you may be given two different streets. Both answers can be right. The word covers two offices that belong to different parts of the State and do different work, and the paper you need decides which of them you will see.
The first office belongs to the Policía Nacional. Its Brigada Provincial de Extranjería y Fronteras sits on C/ Gerona s/n, 47013 (983 456 553), and its entry on policia.es reads like the list of papers most newcomers carry: NIE numbers and certificates, Europeans’ registration, the TIE card, permission to return during a renewal, student and extension files, non-lucrative residence, asylum and travel documents. Broadly, it records who you are and issues the paper that proves it.
The second is the Oficina de Extranjería, Sede 1, at Calle Arzobispo José Delicado 7, 47014 (983 999 222), an office of the Delegación del Gobierno en Castilla y León. This one decides. Its page lists permits to work, employed or self-employed, to reside without working, to bring family over and to stay through arraigo, along with long-term residence, stays for studies, the card for EU citizens’ relatives and appeals. It receives the public between 9:00 and 14:00 on weekdays, and no application is accepted without an appointment.
The same page is plain about what it leaves to others: NIE numbers, TIE cards and green certificates belong to police offices. A European who only needs the green certificate, or a student who already holds a visa and needs the card, has no reason to go to Arzobispo José Delicado at all.
Many files touch both. The non-EU spouse of a European files the EX-19 with the Oficina, then books fingerprints on Calle Gerona once the card is granted. A worker hired from abroad has the authorisation decided by the Oficina, and the TIE made by the police after arriving. Picture two locks in a row: the first decides whether the boat may rise, the second lifts it.
A few procedures appear on both lists. Return authorisations are the clearest case; student stays and their extensions are another. There, rather than choosing between the lists, book the procedure through the cita previa for Valladolid and read the office on the confirmation. That is the one expecting you. Residents of the south of the province may also see Medina del Campo, whose police station lists TIE issue, though not the NIE or Europeans’ registration.
One practical point to finish. policia.es gives no opening hours for Calle Gerona, and the official pages we read give no bus route to it, so look the address up ahead of time. For Arzobispo José Delicado, the Delegación lists nearby bus stops, among them Avenida de Miguel Ángel Blanco opposite the Cúpula del Milenio; our local guide sets them out, with a word of caution about the line numbers.