Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 8:01am
I know I'm answering my own question - but I thought it might be useful for someone else....
We have now managed to get the NIE. It was really quite simple but it took us a few attempts - and a lot of deep breaths!
We started at the town hall in La Zenia (Ayuntamiento de Orihuela) which is where we should have been able to get the NIE. They are open from 8:30-10:45 and we joined a long queue. When we got to the front we were informed that there was a 4-5 week wait for an NIE appointment.
However she said it was quicker to go through the following website and go to Orihuela city or Elche. The website kept crashing and timing out. We assumed this was just a terrible site but later it was working properly and was quick - it's worth persavering.
https://sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es
Select province = Alicante
Select Assignation de NIE
[The next page gives you a link to the tax form. You'll need this but can probably get the form at the bank (see below)]... Select acceptar....
Click "passport" and enter your passport number, name and surname, year of birth and nationality (British =Gran Bretagne). Enter the captcha code.
Enter the new capcha code and click "solicitor cita" to make an appointment. Choose the office you want.
Having been told that La Zenia had a 4-5 week wait it was great to see that Elche could do 10:15 the next day. Nearly there .... Or so we thought.
The next day we went to the police commissioner in Elche. Luckily there was a British guy waiting and he was able to help us (saved us a lot of time). There's plenty of parking up the side of the police station (if you don't have a sat nav, follow signs for the hospital and the police station us just past that).
Go into the office to the right of the reception desk. There's a sign for nie applications.
- you'll need one passport photo (there's a booth opposite the police station - across the roundabout. You'll need €5 for 6 photos)
- you also need a photo copy of your passport
- you need the NIE form. We got one from the desk
- finally you'll need 3 copies of the tax form (see above) which you'll need to have processed at a bank before going for your NIE. We went to caxia bank to pay the tax. You pay €9.45 and they stamp the three forms (they keep one copy).
- at the police station you queue up at the NIE desk. Show them your appointment number and appointment time (so they can tick you off the list). The policeman we saw did lots of puffing and eye rolling as we didn't have everything we needed (believe me, we had tried to figure out what was required but got contradictory information). Nobody there spoke English so probably best to take someone along with a little Spanish.
We then went off for a well deserve Fanta limon and returned at 1:00..... Queued up again and got the NIE. Easy!
I presume the process would have been similar in la Zenia had we been able to wait several weeks for an appointment.
If we'd known all this we would have had it sorted in a few hours:
- make an online appointment
- pay the tax and get photos and photo copy of passport
- submit the forms at the appointed time
- pick up the NIE
Hope this is useful.