The NIE (“Número de Identidad de Extranjero“) is the personal identification number assigned to foreigners who, for economic, professional or social reasons, need to be identified in Spain. You can find further official information about the NIE on the Spanish Ministry of the Interior website.

A Spanish NIE number is required for many legal, financial and administrative procedures, including buying or selling property, purchasing a vehicle, inheritance procedures, paying taxes and dealing with Spanish authorities and public institutions such as the Tax Office, Town Hall, Traffic Department and Land Registry. If you need a NIE number in Spain, Bravo Legal can handle the application on your behalf, normally without you having to attend the Police Station in person.

NIE Application in Spain: Our Fees

Our fee for applying for one NIE is €300,00 + IVA (€363,00). For a couple, provided we can apply for both NIE numbers at the same time, our total fee is €400,00 + IVA (€484,00).

If you are using our Property Conveyancing Service to buy, sell or inherit a property in Spain, the NIE application is included in our professional fees, so there is no additional legal fee for obtaining your NIE, apart from the applicable official costs.

Applying for Your NIE by Power of Attorney

We will need you to sign a Power of Attorney before a Notary, enabling us to submit the NIE application on your behalf and avoiding the inconvenience of having to attend the Police Station in person.

If you are in Spain, we can arrange for the Power of Attorney to be signed at a Notary’s office close to our office in Fuengirola, and we can act as interpreter at no additional charge. The Notary fee is approximately €140,00.

There is also an official fee of €9,84 for each NIE application (€7,31 when applying for a certificate of an existing NIE if the original document has been lost).

You can therefore expect a total cost of approximately €512,00 for one NIE, all inclusive, or €643,68 for two NIEs.

Applying for a NIE from Outside Spain

If you are not in Spain, we can still handle your NIE application in Spain. We can provide a bilingual English/Spanish draft Power of Attorney for you to sign before a Notary in your country. This is provided at no additional legal cost, although you will be responsible for the corresponding Notary fees and any other formalities required for the document to be valid in Spain.

Lost or Expired NIE Certificate

If you have previously been issued a NIE but have lost the certificate, or if you have an old NIE certificate that was issued with an expiry date, we can apply for a new certificate confirming your existing NIE number. Your NIE number itself is personal and does not expire.

How Long Does It Take to Obtain a NIE in Spain?

The timeframe for obtaining a NIE depends mainly on two factors:

1. How quickly you can sign the Power of Attorney.
2. How soon we can secure an appointment with the National Police. In most cases, the NIE is issued during the same visit to the Police Station. However, in some instances, we may need to return to collect it two or three days later.

The second factor in a NIE application in Spain can be particularly challenging, as high demand for NIE appointments can sometimes result in delays of several weeks. Based in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, our first choice is normally the Fuengirola Police Station. When no appointments are available there, we also consider other offices, including Marbella and Málaga.

If no appointments are available at these locations and the NIE is urgently required, we may, with the client’s approval, consider travelling to a Police Station further away. In these circumstances, an additional charge may apply. This option is reserved for urgent cases where the client cannot wait for an appointment at a closer office.

As a general indication, the average timeframe for completing a NIE application, from the client’s first contact with us until the NIE is obtained, is approximately three weeks. This is an estimate and may vary depending on Police appointment availability.

Contact Us About Your NIE Application

If you need assistance obtaining a NIE number in Spain, please contact us by email at mb@bravolegal.es.

Important: If you are a national of an EU country and are moving to Spain or intend to remain in Spain for more than three months, obtaining a NIE alone is not sufficient. You should apply for a Registration Certificate as an EU Resident (“Certificado de Registro de Ciudadano de la Unión Europea“).