How to obtain the NIE?
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Anyone who follows the Spanish housing market in any way or has plans to live in Tenerife temporarily or permanently has heard of them: the NIE number and the Residencia.
However, we regularly receive questions about these documents, and that is why we thought it would be useful to pay some extra attention to them and provide more explanation.
The difference between NIE number & Residencia (permanent or long stay)
Both the NIE number and the Residencia (which is in fact the same as the basic NIE number but it will be permanent and instead of white it will be a green NIE) are intended to establish the identity of the owner. Once you have a NIE number and you later apply for a Residencia, whether or not it is mandatory, the number will remain the same. The identity number is only issued once per person. It never changes and therefore always remains linked to the personal data of the owner. If you apply for a new NIE number, the document will remain valid indefinitely. As already stated above, the number never changes.
But what exactly is the NIE number?
The Foreigner Identification Number (NIE) is a unique, exclusive personal number that the main police station assigns to foreigners who find themselves in the situations mentioned below. In the first two cases, the assignment is made ex officio and in the third case, at the request of the interested party.
For whom?
Persons who are eligible to extend their stay in Spanish territory, or obtain a document that allows their stay. Persons who establish relations with Spain for financial, professional or social reasons. Given the privileged status that citizens of the European Union have for residence in Spain, the application for their NIE number will be based mainly on the fact that they establish relations with the Spanish State for financial, professional or social reasons.
The NIE is the number with which a European citizen identifies himself in Spain. This number appears on all documents that are issued, all applications that are addressed to Public Administrations and, furthermore, is mentioned in an important part of private transactions (such as with banks, taking out insurance, etc.). However, the NIE number is not a replacement for, but a supplement to the documentation that a European citizen must always carry with him for identification in Spain, such as:
The National Identity Card, or the passport. Both must be issued by the authorities in the country of origin to be valid. It is absolutely necessary to have an NIE number, in order to be able to realize a number of important things in Tenerife. It is therefore advisable to apply for the NIE as soon as possible.
Below we list a number of things that cannot be done without the NIE number:
• Buying or selling a home.
• Signing a mortgage loan.
• Entry in the Property Register and with Notaries.
• For long-term rental
• Registration in the population register of the municipality where one lives;
• Obtaining a certificate of habitability for the home;
• The annual land registry, motor vehicle tax, capital gains tax and
building permits.
• Justice: population register, free legal aid
• Obtaining a registration number from the Social Services.
• Opening a bank account.
• Setting up a business or company.
• Payment of State Taxes and Autonomous Taxes:
• Non-Resident Income Tax (Impuesto de la Renta de los no Residentes, IRNR)
• Corporate tax (Impuesto de Sociedades, IS); VAT (Impuesto sobre el Valor Añadido, NA);
• Inheritance Taxes and Taxes on Donations (Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones, ISD)...
• Purchasing a vehicle.
• Obtaining or renewing a driver's license.
• Education of young people, academic or university studies.
• Homologation and equivalence of titles and studies.
• Scholarships
• Eligibility for the provision of services by the Utility Companies (electricity, water, telephone, etc.).
It goes without saying that we will carry out the NIE application for you if you do business with us.