Residents and non-residents start at different levels
Newcomers who settle in Valladolid seldom request the bare number. For a European, it arrives on the green certificate issued on registration. A non-EU newcomer generally gets it together with a visa or an authorisation, and meets it again on the TIE, the residence card.
Requesting the number on its own suits people whose home stays abroad: a buyer from Lisbon signing for a flat near the Campo Grande, an heir to a family house in the province, a consultant sent for a short project with a firm in the city. What they take away is the number and a certificate showing it, and no right of residence. For a purchase, our page on buying a home in the province sets out the whole order, from the reservation to the notary.
Filling in form EX-15
The EX-15 fits on a couple of pages. It wants your personal details exactly as in your passport, a postal address for official letters, and why the number is needed. Be plain about that last point and attach whatever backs it up: a signed reservation or a letter from the notary for a purchase, an employer’s offer letter, papers from an inheritance, a university admission. If the reason is on paper, the officer has little left to ask.
The form is signed by hand. Arrive with it completed, plus a photocopy, instead of writing it out at the counter, and with the State fee already paid on the 790-012 fee form.
Calle Gerona, and what is not done on Arzobispo José Delicado
policia.es places the number at C/ Gerona s/n, 47013 Valladolid, with the Policía Nacional’s foreigners’ brigade for the province (Brigada Provincial de Extranjería y Fronteras); its entry reads “certificados y asignación de NIE”, meaning certificates of an existing NIE and the assignment of a new one. The same page gives the phone, 983 456 553, and no opening hours, which leaves the hour of your cita previa for Valladolid, the appointment booked online, as the one to plan around.
The Oficina de Extranjería on Calle Arzobispo José Delicado is another office of the State altogether. Its own page states that NIE numbers, TIE cards and EU registration certificates are handled at police offices, not there.
From abroad, through a consulate
Living outside Spain, you may also hand an EX-15 to the Spanish consulate responsible for your area. Consulates work by appointment too, and each publishes the papers it expects, so start from the page of yours. Whatever the route, you are only ever given one number, and it stays yours if you come to live here later.
Where it travels next
The NIE says who you are, and that is all: it carries no permission to live or work here. Europeans already have that right and record it by registering; non-Europeans hold it through a visa or an authorisation. As a reference, though, it is asked for again and again:
- In the escritura (deed) of a purchase, at the notary’s
- For a bank account, and any mortgage
- On a job contract and your Social Security registration
- On Spanish tax returns, a non-resident owner’s included
- On electricity, water and internet contracts
- For a car, an inheritance, or shares in a company