Getting a TIE in Malaga, Spain - Step-by-Step Guide
The tarjeta de identidad de extranjero (or TIE [tee-ay], as it is commonly called in Spain) is an identification card provided to non-EU foreigners who reside in Spain for longer than visas permit. Wondering how to make a TIE appointment in Malaga, Spain? Here’s a step-by-step guide to help make the tiresome process of getting your TIE a little easier.
The process to move to Spain is very doable, but it involves a lot of documents—and a lot more patience! Even before moving abroad, the visa application process totally exhausted me. So, when I finally arrived in Spain, I was a bit dismayed to learn that the TIE application process would prove similarly complicated and lengthy. It felt like there were soooo many bureaucratic hurdles to jump through. Buuuuut I also felt super grateful to have support from friends (other auxiliares de conversación) who had accomplished these tasks in years prior.
With this blog post, I’m providing the steps I took to get my TIE in Malaga, Spain. If you have just moved to Spain, please do your own research and reach out to other foreigners in your local area of Spain, because from what I’ve heard, the TIE process (and all other bureaucratic processes in Spain for that matter) varies by region, by office, and even by employee. I hope that reading about my experience getting my TIE in Malaga (in Fuengirola, to be exact) will help you in applying for and picking up your own card.
If you’ll be living in Malaga—from the city center, to Nerja, to Ronda, to Fuengirola, to Marbella, to Mijas, to all of the towns in between—this post should help you make a plan for getting your TIE. And the guide below will likely be useful for those looking for information on how to get a TIE in Andalusia (or Andalucía) and in Spain in general, although you should always be sure to research local requirements which may differ from region to region and town to town.
Without further ado, here’s the information I’ve compiled about the TIE application process in Malaga, Spain.
1. Get your empadronamiento.
Another hidden requirement? Unfortunately, yes. The empadronamiento (or padron for short) establishes where a person lives in Spain. And the document is required to apply for the TIE. Read this article to learn more about my experience getting a padron in Fuengirola (which is in Malaga), Spain.
2. Make a TIE appointment.
As soon as you can, you should make a TIE appointment, because appointments pop up randomly and may fill up quickly.
To do so, you will need a Spanish phone number, as the government website must send a verification code to a Spanish phone number to reserve the appointment. If you would like to learn about my experience getting a Spanish SIM card, read my article, here.
You can make your TIE appointment through this website. Once on the site, scroll down until you see a button that says “acceder al procedimiento” and click that button.
At the top of the next screen, you will be able to select the province where you are residing in Spain. For example, if you are living in the province of Malaga, scroll down in the drop down menu and select “Malaga.” Then click the button that says “aceptar.”
On the next page, scroll down until you reach the part where your screen matches the screenshot below.
OPTIONAL: The first dropdown menu, titled “oficina,” allows you to select the exact office where you’d like to make a TIE appointment. If you want to search for appointments at a certain office, you can select the office using this menu. However, you are allowed to attend your TIE appointment at any Comisaría Nacional de Policía (CNP) within the province in which you establish residency. For example, after establishing my residency in Fuengirola, I could attend my TIE appointment at any CNP in Malaga (the province in which Fuengirola is located). Some people decide to attend their TIE appointments in a nearby towns in their province, because these appointments are difficult to come by in general. That said, for convenience’s sake, I decided to wait for a TIE appointment to become available in Fuengirola so that I didn’t have to travel so far.
REQUIRED: On the dropdown menu titled “trámites cuerpo nacional de policía,” select “policía - toma de huella.” (Toma de huella means ‘fingerprinting,’ which is completed at TIE appointments.) Then click “aceptar.”
On the next page, scroll down until you see a button that says “entrar,” and click that button.
When the page reloads again, you should see a screen like the photo below. Fill in your NIE or passport number information, your full name (as it appears on your passport), and nationality. (If you’re from the USA, you should select “EEUU” in the dropdown menu.) Then click “aceptar.”
On the next page, you’ll see your personal information and a few buttons. Click the button that says “solicitar cita.”
You’ll be brought to one final screen with a dropdown menu that includes the local police stations with available appointments. You can make your appointment at any police station within your province (and therefore any police station on this dropdown list), BUT be sure to map the distance between the police station and the place where you are living because some of these options might require you to travel a bit. Select a police station and click “siguiente.”
On the following page, fill in your phone number (MUST BE A SPANISH PHONE NUMBER THAT CAN RECEIVE TEXTS) and email address. When you finish, continue again by clicking “siguiente.”
On the next page, you should be able to select an appointment. If you see a TIE appointment that works for you, click on it, and click through the buttons to finalize your appointment. Be sure to download a copy of your appointment confirmation, as you will need to print this paper to bring to the police station when you attend your TIE appointment. The appointment confirmation may also be useful for getting excused from school or work.
If no appointments are available, I know how stressful that can be and I feel for you, but don’t worry! New appointments will appear eventually! Check back once or twice a day over the next few days, because the police stations upload new appointment availability at unpredictable times. (I’ve heard some people claim that mornings are best to catch the new appointments that drop, but I don’t have any personal experience with this.)
3. Prepare the documents you need for your TIE appointment.
Make sure you prepare your documents in advance of your appointment, because these documents require stores and offices that might be closed at inconvenient times. For instance, in Fuengirola, most stores and offices close for siesta and on weekends (especially Sundays).
Below are the documents I needed to get my TIE in Malaga, Spain. Here’s what I brought to my TIE appointment:
Passport (original and 2 copies of photo page, 2 copies of visa page, and 2 copies of stamp where I entered the schengen area)
2 passport photos (it’s best to get these photos taken in Spain, because passport photos in the US are a different size and they won’t work for the TIE)
Empadronamiento
Proof of address (this may not be necessary, but I brought my rental contract just in case)
TIE application form (2 copies)
Form EX23 - for UK citizens
Modelo EX17 - for non-UK citizens
Form 790 - Codigo 012 - tasa (tax) payment form
Fill out this form, then print the document it generates.
To pay, you have two options:
Bring the form to a bank, and pay the tasa there. The clerk will sign it and stamp it as proof that you paid.
Bring the form to an ATM (only works at certain ATMs, and I have no idea how to figure out which ones other than trial and error), and pay the tasa there. The ATMs only accept cash, but they will provide change. Scan the barcode on your form, then insert the cash, and the ATM will provide you a receipt. Bring that receipt to your appointment as proof that you paid the tasa.
TIE appointment confirmation - I’m not sure if this is required, but I printed out my appointment confirmation just in case as proof that I had an appointment on that date and time.
Again, check with other foreigners in your local area to make sure you’re bringing the right documents, because the requirements might change and might vary by region.
4. Attend your TIE appointment.
Don’t schedule anything too soon after your TIE appointment, because there can be long wait times. I’ve heard of people completing their TIE appointments in less than fifteen minutes, but mine took a little over an hour (in Fuengirola), because the office was running behind.
At your appointment, be sure to ask when your TIE will be ready for pickup. Most likely, they will tell you to schedule your TIE pick up appointment within 30-40 days, but the exact timing could vary by police station and time of year. (I based the above estimate on what I’ve heard from folks who got thir TIEs in Malaga.) For example, in Fuengirola, I picked my TIE up after only 24 days.
5. Schedule an appointment to pick up your TIE.
To schedule an appointment to pick up your TIE, you should use the same website you used to make your appointment. This time, when you reach the screen below, open the “oficina” dropdown menu. You must select the same office as where you attended your TIE appointment.
Then, on the dropdown menu titled “trámites cuerpo nacional de policía,” select “recogida de tarjeta de identidad de extranjero.” After that, follow the steps you used to make your TIE appointment. Again, remember to download and print your appointment confirmation.
Just like the toma de huellas appointments, recogida appointments may also be difficult to come by. If you don’t see any recogida appointments available, keep checking each day. This can definitely be frustrating, but eventually, more appointments will become available.
Alternatively, you may have luck picking up your TIE just by popping back in to the office where you had your toma de huellas appointment. If they’re not too busy, they might just give you your TIE without a recogida appointment. I had luck doing this in Fuengirola, so maybe you will, too! No guarantees, but it might be worth a try!
Wishing you the best of luck in getting your TIE in Malaga, Spain!
