# Paper NIE & 3 month wait for card??



## Kus (Apr 24, 2014)

Hi all

After previously receiving some useful and morale boosting advice here, I now find myself in another pickle!

I'm in Vic, Spain. I have applied and registered for everything I was supposed to.
Registered at the town hall
Got my NIE from the police station
I have a work contract and have started working
etc.

My non-EU wife is with me, and has an appointment to register for residency as my spouse in Barcelona a week on Friday, and we thought we had EVERYTHING we needed (and in triplicate!). But now we're being told that my paper NIE document may well not be sufficient for her application, and that she will need a copy of my residency card.

So I returned to the police station and explained that I am in employment and that I need the actual card not just the paper document for my wife's residency application, but they said that I have to either prove that I have been employment for 3 months, or have 5082.20 euros in my bank account, before they will issue the card!

Now according to EU law I believe that my wife can stay here without a visa for 90 days if I'm working. So this leaves us in a catch-22 situation as I cannot get my card issued in this time for her to apply!

I really don't know what to do! After jumping through a million hoops just to get us both here (even though it's our right), I feel like we're failing at the last.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much!
Mark
p.s. I've attached the information they gave me in case it's useful.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

I think you may be confused. 

When you say NIE - is this on a white sheet of paper or green?

If white, then you will need to get the certificate of registration first. This will normally require proof of income and proof of health care. However, if you are employed and have a work contract(as you state) then you will be covered for health care and will (in time) be covered for proof of income.

I would suggest asking your employer to help in this matter and see if they can speed things up a bit.


Lastly, there is no such thing as a card for members of the EU - this went out years ago and all you get now is a sheet of paper.


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## Kus (Apr 24, 2014)

Hi
Thanks for your reply.

It is a white sheet of paper with my NIE ref. on, that I was issued at the police station. What my employer has, and what the police station won't give me, (and I'm told is needed for my wife's application) is the small green photo-less card. They say I have to have been employed for three months to get this. (A residency card?)

I previously registered with the town hall. I got the 'Empadronament' etc. Also 'Informe de Datos para la Cotización - trabajadores por Cuenta Ajena / Resolución sobre reconocimiento de alta.
Amongst many other pieces of paper!

My employer's lawyer has made sure that we have done everything, but the police are saying that I have to have been in employment for 3 months before they will replace the NIE I have that is valid for 3 months only, with the permanent one.

The certificate of registration you mention, is this from the town hall?


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Kus said:


> Hi
> Thanks for your reply.
> 
> It is a white sheet of paper with my NIE ref. on, that I was issued at the police station. What my employer has, and what the police station won't give me, (and I'm told is needed for my wife's application) is the small green photo-less card. They say I have to have been employed for three months to get this. (A residency card?)
> ...


This what snikpoh is referring to, I think, which is an A4 piece of paper stating that you are a member of the EU, legally resident in Spain. 








And the above example, as you can see has actually been issued in Catalonia.

This is issued after 3 months (this is the time stated on the Ministry of employment's website. It is interpreted as more than 90 days I think). I don't think you need to have been working for 3 months to get it.
You could try printing this off and getting someone at work to look at it if they are Spanish speaking that is. 
Secretaría General de Inmigración y Emigración. Portal de la Inmigración


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

I have just looked at the PDF you posted (upside down) and that info is so that you can obtain one of the certificates that I posted above, a Certificado de Registro de Cuidadano de la Union.
If the people that you work with are EU members, they should have this certificate too, so they should know what to do!!


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## Kus (Apr 24, 2014)

Sorry about the pdf! I thought I'd successfully turned it around!

My boss has been here for many years, so I think that hers is old.

So if this is the certificate I need, then the question still arises as to why many others in Spain have said that they have received their residency 'card' quickly, yet Catalonia has a 3 month working stipulation (as told me at the police station).

It seems to be an illegal new ruling from Barcelona. Frustrating!


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Just to be clear, the A4 (green) sheet mentioned above is what many of us have. In some areas, this now has a card-sized 'pop out' to be easier to carry around. It is not really a 'residency card' but merely proof that you have registered as an expat in Spain.


Pesky: You say


> This is issued after 3 months


. This is ONLY true if you have applied for the NIE first. Many people go directly for the registration certificate ('residencia') as this route is cheaper and easier.


Unfortunately, your employers lawyer is wrong - you need to get the green 'thing' as well (or could have got it instead of the NIE). The NIE (number) is permanent - it is the sheet of paper on which it's printed which expires.


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## Kus (Apr 24, 2014)

Thanks. I think Barcelona does have it as a card-sized 'pop out' and this is where our confusion started!

My employer's employees haven't had to wait 3 months last year, or ever before, going through the same process of NIE first. It's all odd.

I'll relay all this to her. Many thanks for taking the time to reply!


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

snikpoh said:


> Just to be clear, the A4 (green) sheet mentioned above is what many of us have. In some areas, this now has a card-sized 'pop out' to be easier to carry around. It is not really a 'residency card' but merely proof that you have registered as an expat in Spain.
> 
> 
> Pesky: You say . This is ONLY true if you have applied for the NIE first. Many people go directly for the registration certificate ('residencia') as this route is cheaper and easier.
> ...


Yes, it seems that the laywer is not too up to date.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

snikpoh said:


> I think you may be confused.
> 
> When you say NIE - is this on a white sheet of paper or green?
> 
> ...


have you forgotten that they have been issuing resident registration cards (for EU residents) now for a couple of years?

flimsy plasticised-on-one-side cards which you can push out of the A4 certificate - but cards none-the-less



edit - I see you have remembered


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