NIE number in Spain — who gets one, and how you apply

A NIE is the identification number Spain gives a foreigner. If your only link to Spain is a purchase, you apply yourself, in person, on form EX-15, and the Policía Nacional fee is €9.84 as at August 2026. It must be resolved within five days, and silence means the application has been refused.

Why most English-language pages about this are out of date

The NIE procedure is set by Real Decreto 1155/2024, de 19 de noviembre, which approved a new reglamento for Spain's immigration law and entered into force on 20 May 2025. Its single repealing provision killed Real Decreto 557/2011. A great deal of English-language guidance still cites art. 206.3 of that repealed text. The United Kingdom government's own page about buying property in Spain prints its own last-updated date as 13 May 2021, four years before the new regulation took effect, and carries a banner saying it is being reviewed.

The current article is art. 205, and it has not been amended since it was made. We checked: Real Decreto 316/2026, de 14 de abril, in force since 16 April 2026, modifies a list of articles that does not include art. 205, and the consolidated text last updated on 15 April 2026 still carries the original wording.

Who gets a NIE automatically, and who does not

Which of the two cases you are in decides everything that follows, and the rule that separates them postdates the gov.uk guidance by four years.

Art. 205.3 says the number is granted by the Dirección General de la Policía of its own motion in the cases listed in art. 205.1. Then it draws a line:

«En el caso de visados, la concesión de oficio sólo se aplicará en aquellos procedimientos de visados que habiliten a sus titulares a permanecer en España más de 90 días naturales en cualquier período de ciento ochenta días naturales sin necesidad de tramitar una autorización de estancia de larga duración o de residencia temporal.»

In English: if your visa lets you stay more than 90 days in any 180 without a further permit, the number arrives with the visa. Then comes the sentence that excludes the property buyer:

«La concesión de oficio no se aplicará en el caso de las personas extranjeras que se relacionen con España por razón de sus intereses económicos, profesionales o sociales, que deberán interesar de dicho órgano la asignación del indicado número.»

In English: where your connection with Spain is economic, professional or social, the automatic grant does not apply and you must ask for the number yourself. Two conditions attach to that request in the same paragraph: that you are not in Spain unlawfully, and that you say why you want the number.

So the answer depends entirely on your route. A buyer coming on the non-lucrative visa gets the number with the visa. A buyer whose only connection to Spain is the purchase applies for it separately. Buying a property is an economic interest, and it is the second case.

One wrinkle, because the two lists are not identical. Art. 205.1 and art. 205.4 describe interests as "económicos, profesionales, sociales o de cualquier otra índole" — four categories. The exclusion in art. 205.3 lists only three. The narrower list governs who is shut out of the automatic grant; the wider one governs who may apply. They are not the same list.

Where you apply

Art. 205.4 names the channels. You may apply to the Dirección General de la Policía directly, through an Oficina de Extranjería, or through a comisaría of the national police. If you are not physically in Spain when you apply, the article routes you to the Comisaría General de Extranjería y Fronteras through a Spanish consulate abroad.

The word the article uses for how you apply is personalmente. That word is why this page explains the procedure and stops there.

What it costs, and which form

The form is EX-15, Solicitud de Número de Identidad de Extranjero (NIE) y Certificados, and the current version already carries RD 1155/2024 in its header. It is published by the Ministerio de Inclusión.

The fee is paid on modelo 790 código 012 before you attend. The Policía Nacional publishes it in its Tasas de Extranjería table under the heading Asignación de Número de Identidad de Extranjero (NIE) a instancia del interesado, and the amount is €9.84 as at 26 August 2026. It is paid at a bank, a savings bank or a credit cooperative, and you do not need an account there. For context, and from the same Policía Nacional table on the same date, an autorización de regreso is €10.72 and a certificate issued at your own request is €7.31.

One honest limitation: the Policía Nacional publishes that amount without citing the ministerial order that sets it, and we have not traced that order. The figure is sourced to the authority that charges it, not to a statute.

How long it takes, and what silence means

Art. 205.4 also sets the clock, and the consequence of it running out:

«El procedimiento habrá de ser resuelto en el plazo máximo de cinco días desde la entrada de la solicitud en el registro del órgano competente para su tramitación. La resolución deberá ser notificada en dicho plazo, transcurrido el cual sin haber obtenido respuesta, se entenderá que la solicitud ha sido desestimada.»

In English: the procedure must be decided within a maximum of five days from the date the application reaches the register of the competent body, the decision must be notified inside that period, and if the period passes with no answer the application is treated as refused.

Read that twice. Spanish administrative law does not treat silence the same way everywhere, and this article says in terms which way it goes here: the application is treated as refused. If five days pass and nothing arrives, you have been refused by default, and waiting longer does not help you. The practical consequence for a purchase is that the NIE is not a background task you can start a fortnight before completion and assume will resolve itself.

The same paragraph 5 applies this procedure to applications for residence and non-residence certificates as well.

What a NIE is not

• It is not residency. It is an identification number, and holding one gives you no right to be in Spain for a single extra day. What governs that is on moving to Spain from the UK.
• It is not a work permit. Nothing about the number authorises you to work.
• It does not make you tax-resident. Tax residency turns on where you actually live and on the treaty position, not on a number, and this site does not answer that question for you.
• It is not the same as a residence card. The card is a document. The NIE is the number printed on it and on everything else.

You will need the number to open a Spanish bank account, to be named on the escritura, and to be assessed for the transfer tax. Your lender will ask for it before anything else, which is why it sits at the front of Spanish mortgages for non-residents. If a word in this section is unfamiliar, the glossary has it.

What we cannot do

We cannot obtain a NIE for you. RD 1155/2024 art. 205.4 requires the application to be made personalmente, and the counterparty is the Dirección General de la Policía. This page explains the procedure; it does not perform it. Whether a power of attorney can be used in your circumstances is a question for a lawyer, and this page does not answer it.

Art. 205.4 names no delegated-filing route and we have found none. This page does not compare the NIE with any other procedure, because we have not read the rules of the other ones.

What this page does not cover

It does not cover residence permits, the residence card itself, renewals, the certificado de registro for European Union citizens, or what to do if your application is refused. It does not tell you whether your particular circumstances allow somebody else to attend for you. And it does not cover the purchase itself — that is buying property in Spain.

We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. Before you commit money, instruct an independent lawyer who acts only for you.