NIE Cert Renewal

marcliff wrote:My NIE certificate has the address on it.

Mine doesn't, but as we got our NIE's before we bought the apartment we wouldn't have had a Spanish address anyway.

When I first bought in Spain, you didn't need an NIE number if you were non resident. You normally applied for them after a couple of years but it was not compulsory. Nor did you need one to open a bank account.
Now you need one before you buy a property so they've probably taken the address off it.

When we become residents (about 9 years after getting the NIE) the certificates had the old address on it but the chap at Elche police station wasn't bothered about it. My NIE still has the very first address on it even though we've moved twice more since then.

The NIE has been confined to a file drawer for many years and my residency card does for everything.

Marcliff, why are there no appointments now for NIE numbers & where did you see that please?Surely people still are buying cars & property.

If you go on to the web site that enables you to book an appointment, there is a box saying
"PROCESSING FOR THE DOCUMENTATION OF NATIONALS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM"
Then follow the site to make an appointment for an NIE in the Alicante province and it comes up with:
"At this time there are no appointments available"
And it's been coming up with that for the last two weeks at least.
The bit about the Nationals of the United Kingdom doesn't come up when I enter Murcia province. However, when you enter your country of nationality as Great Britain then you get the same "At this time there are no appointments available".

Yes, I agree, sounds strange as people will be buying property, cars etc but there are no appointments for Brits at the moment.

Then again, it might be that there are actually no appointments available in Alicante or Murcia because if I enter Norway as the nationality then it also says no appointments available.
Almeria province does have appointments so it could be that these two provinces are very busy.

All very strange for something that you must have before being able to do things.

If you need NIE urgently for work etc. Get in touch with the British Embassy in Alicante and they will help you. Over 20 years ago we could not buy a home with out an NIE number.

You are making me start doubting my memory (am getting old) so I dragged out the original documentation.
Yes, the NIE certificate had my address on it.
We bought our first property near Villamartin in 2004 but our NIE certificates are dated August 2006 so two years later.
We were non-residents and I seem to remember we only got the NIE certificates because we needed them to sell the property, not to buy it though.
We also had a bank account (with Bankinter at the time) and no NIE so they didn't seem to be so important back in the day. Just a passport required then.
Now I'm asked for my NIE when collecting parcels from the couriers, when buying anything over a certain amount or getting any work done in the house.
Times change.

Thanks Lexia I can't imagine that NIE numbers have been suspended although Brexit throws up lots of queries.There would be a lot of estate agents who would need it to be sorted shortly as they must have British buyers waiting for this.

Hi well I had on my NIE cert 3 months expiry 16 years later I still have the same form bought a bran new car no problem apparently the Guarda Civil deemed it a good idea so they put this on, this is what I was told by my solicitor and still I am using my 16 year old form.

hope this helps the discussion. Pete.