NIE or TIE: which one do I need, and how do I get it?

The NIE is a number. The TIE is a card. The NIE, Número de Identidad de Extranjero, is the identifying number the Spanish state gives you. The TIE, Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero, is the physical card that documents a residence permission you have already been granted. For a Filipino citizen, who is non-EU, the answer is almost always the same: you get a TIE, and your NIE is printed on it.

NIE and TIE, side by side

Which one applies to you depends on one thing only: whether you hold a Spanish residence authorisation.

If you have no residence authorisation, you cannot get a TIE — the card only documents a permission that already exists. You can still register on the padrón (Barcelona City Council’s register of residents), get a health card and enrol your children in school; none of those depend on a TIE.

What it costs

The fee is tasa modelo 790 código 012. These amounts were read from the Policía Nacional fee table on 9 Sep 2026, and the page carried that date.

You pay at any bank, savings bank or credit cooperative, and you do not need an account there. You hand over the printed 790-012 form and they stamp it. Keep the stamped copy: that stamp is your proof of payment. Booking the appointment itself is free — there is no appointment charge anywhere on the state’s extranjería fee table.

What to bring

The police procedure page lists only two things:

• Form EX-17, completed.
• The stamped proof of payment of tasa 790-012.

Take your passport and the letter granting your authorisation as well, and ask what else is needed when you book. The page does not say how many photographs are required, or in what format, and the Reglamento requires a photograph only for long-term-resident TIE renewals, so ask rather than guess.

Where to go, and how to book

The application must be handed in in person, at an Oficina de Extranjería or a Comisaría de Policía. Start on the state’s “Cita previa de extranjería” page on the sede electrónica of the Ministry of Public Administrations, scroll to the bottom and press the grey button “Acceder al Procedimiento” — it is a button, not a link, which is why people give up on that page. Choose Barcelona.

Two different bodies own these queues:

So a card appointment and an application appointment are not the same queue. The booking system assigns the office and shows it on your confirmation; read it carefully before you travel.

How long it takes

The law gives you one month to apply. What starts the month depends on your route:

• One month from the day your authorisation is granted — most people.
• One month from your entry into Spain on the visa.
• One month from your registration with Social Security, when the permit is a work permit.

All three are in the Reglamento de Extranjería, Real Decreto 1155/2024, in force since 20 May 2025 and amended by Real Decreto 316/2026 with effect from 16 Apr 2026. No official processing time is published for the card itself once you have applied; ask at the counter.

Renewal, and the deadline that is shorter than it looks

Apply in the two months before your card expires. Filing inside that window keeps your existing authorisation valid until they decide, so you do not fall out of status while you wait. A filing made within three months after expiry gets the same cover, but every one of those articles ends with the words “sin perjuicio de la incoación del correspondiente procedimiento sancionador” — without prejudice to opening the corresponding sanctioning procedure — so a late filing can also start an infringement case against you under article 52.b of Ley Orgánica 4/2000. File inside the two-month window if you possibly can.

The rule is set out route by route — arraigo (arrelament in Catalan) is a residence permit based on time already spent in Spain:

Look up the article for your own route.

What happens next

You will be told when and where to collect the card. The TIE shows your NIE, your permission type and its expiry date. Carry it, and keep the paper decision that granted the permission somewhere safe. The card is not the permission: losing the card does not lose the permission.

What goes wrong

• People believe a NIE makes them legal. It does not. A NIE is an identifying number and nothing else. It gives no right to stay and no right to work, and paying an agent for one will not change your status. The route out of irregularity is a residence authorisation, usually through arraigo, and that is a different application on a different form, EX-10. Get free advice from SAIER (Servei d’Atenció a Immigrants, Emigrants i Refugiats, Barcelona City Council’s free service for migrants and refugees) before you pay anyone.
• Agents who charge for the appointment. The appointment is free. The only money you owe is the tasa, and you pay that at a bank counter, not to a person.

Useful words

Read next

• Where do I get free legal advice on immigration, arraigo or family reunification?
• Which office books which appointment (cita previa)?
• How do I register on the padrón?
• Do I need papers?

Official source

Policía Nacional, sede electrónica, “Tarjeta inicial o renovación residencia o residencia y trabajo”, with form EX-17 and the fee form. Fee amounts are on the same site under “Tasas de Extranjería”. The deadlines are in Real Decreto 1155/2024, as amended by Real Decreto 316/2026, at boe.es.