Once you are approved for your visa, you will be assigned a NIE. Some consulates will include your NIE in the visa itself, but others will not. The NIE is your identification number while in Spain, and it is incredibly useful for getting an apartment, opening a bank account, and getting a phone plan with a Spanish phone number. In general it makes your transition to Spain much easier if you have it. Regardless if you have a NIE on your visa or not, you will have a NIE number assigned to you.

If you do not have your NIE number included with the visa, it will be much more difficult for you when you arrive in Spain. You can still complete all of the necessary requirements with just your passport number, but you will be rejected more often due to not having a NIE number. Once you apply for a TIE, the residency card, you will receive your NIE information, but it can take up to two months after arriving in Spain to receive your residency card with your NIE information.

Applicants who do not have the NIE included in the visa will have 2 options.

Option 1 – Struggle bus: Complete all of the requirements upon arrival with just your passport number. Apply for a TIE with your passport number as well, and once you receive your residency card, you will also receive your NIE.

Option 2 – Contact your local Oficina Extranjería: In the NALCAP orientation meeting for Seville, the program mentioned a way to receive your NIE before getting your TIE.

“Si no se dispone de el NIE porque en el visado no aparece impreso, dirigir un mensaje a sevilla.oue@policia.es adjuntando una imagen del visado y de la página biográfica del pasaporte indicando en el asunto » Falta NIE.»”

Simply contact your local Oficina Extranjería via email with an attachment of the visa page and data page from your passport. In the title write “Falta NIE”. In the message you can politely request your NIE number. Remember, your NIE number was already assigned to you. It´s available in a database, but you just didn´t have access to it.

To find the email address of your local Oficina Extranjería, google “Oficina Extranjeria (region) Correo Electronico”.

In other regions the email address can be located in the cita previa page when making a TIE appointment.

TIE Appointment Process

Below is an example from Valencia. When making an appointment, choose your region. In the next page you choose your appointment. In the following page, they have a message at the bottom of the page.

“Si usted desconoce su Nº de NIE (Número de Identificación de Extranjeros) envíe copia de pasaporte y visado por correo electrónico a [valencia.tie@policia.es](mailto:valencia.tie@policia.es) y le será facilitado.”

This information was given from the Sevilla orientation, but it should work in all regions. Let me know how it worked for you. You can always contact me through the contact page in the website.

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