What is an NIE number in Spain?

NIE stands for Número de Identidad de Extranjero. It is a unique number, one letter, seven digits, one check letter (X-1234567-A, for example), that the Spanish state uses to identify you in every official system. The tax agency uses it as your tax ID. Notaries, banks, employers, the social security office and the DGT all key their records to it.

The most common confusion is thinking the NIE is a visa or a residence permit. It is neither. Tourists can hold one. The police assign it to any foreigner who “relates to Spain for economic, professional or social reasons”, which in practice means anyone who wants to buy property, open a business, inherit, register a car, or sign a contract that gets reported to Hacienda. Holding an NIE says nothing about your right to live in Spain. That right comes from a visa or a residence card (the TIE), which carries your NIE printed on it.

How you get one

Two routes, and the paperwork is the same for both.

Inside Spain. Book a cita previa at a Policía Nacional station or an Oficina de Extranjería, bring your passport, form EX-15 filled in, the paid tasa 790 código 012, and, although the regulation only asks you to state your reason, comisarías in practice want to see it on paper: a property reservation, a job offer, a company incorporation, a university letter, or a padrón certificate plus rental contract. The fee for NIE assignment is €9.84, set by Orden PJC/617/2025 and in force since 16 June 2025. You pay it at any bank before the appointment and bring the stamped receipt.

Outside Spain. File the same EX-15 at the Spanish consulate for where you live. The consulate forwards it to the Comisaría General de Extranjería y Fronteras in Madrid. Slower, but it avoids the appointment scramble once you arrive.

Real Decreto 1155/2024 gives the police a maximum of five days to resolve the request once it enters the registry, and if you hear nothing in that time the application counts as refused, so chase it. In practice, inside Spain you usually walk out with the number on a printed certificate the same day; consular applications run weeks. You must not be in Spain irregularly when you apply.

What it does not do

An NIE does not expire. The 790-012 payment receipt does, after roughly three months, so don’t pay the fee long before your appointment. The number does not register you with social security, does not give you a tax residency, and does not replace the padrón (your town hall registration). The padrón in particular needs no NIE, a passport and a rental contract or utility bill are usually enough (each town hall sets its own list), and the padrón certificate is itself one of the documents that justifies the NIE application.

EU and EEA citizens moving here usually get the number a different way. Registering as a resident with form EX-18 puts the NIE on the green certificado de registro. An EU citizen who is not moving here, buying a holiday home for instance, files the EX-15 like everyone else.