Two kinds of applicant
People moving to Cartagena or the Mar Menor for good rarely ask for the bare number. A European finds it on the green certificate issued at registration; a national of a non-EU country is given it when the visa or permit is granted, and later reads it on the plastic card that follows the fingerprint appointment, the TIE.
Requesting only the number, on form EX-15, suits people whose life stays in another country: someone buying a home on La Manga who flies in each spring, the heir to a house in Los Urrutias, the engineer sent to the port on a short contract. They leave with the number, a paper stating it, and no more.
Filling in the EX-15
The form is short. It wants your names exactly as the passport spells them, an address where post reaches you, and the reason you need a NIE. Make the reason concrete and bring the paper behind it, whether a private purchase contract, a notary’s letter, an offer of employment or a document from an estate. Officers look for that paper.
The same form also serves to ask for a certificate of a number you already hold, when the original paper has gone astray.
Where Cartagena lists it
policia.es places NIE certificates and NIE assignment at the Comisaría de Cartagena (the city’s police station), C/ Menéndez y Pelayo 6. Its directory of foreigners’ units gives 968 320 795 for it, its general list of stations 968 320 722, and neither gives opening hours. The provincial brigade at Cabezo Cortado, in Murcia, lists the same procedure.
The appointment is a cita previa for Murcia province (booked ahead, online, for the whole province). Choose the trámite (procedure) for NIE certificates and assignment, check the address on the confirmation before accepting, and settle the Modelo 790 código 012 ahead of it.
From a consulate abroad
A non-resident can also file the EX-15 at the Spanish consulate for their area of residence. Consulates each have their own way of booking and their own checklist, so start with its website. The number obtained there is the one any later residence document will show.
Doors the number opens
- The deed of a flat or a villa, at the notary’s
- A bank account in Spain, and any mortgage
- Water, electricity and internet in your own name
- Spanish tax returns, the non-resident’s included
- A job contract and a Social Security number
- Buying or registering a car
In Cartagena
Here the number is a city errand: NIE assignment appears on policia.es at the comisaría on C/ Menéndez y Pelayo 6, the one foreigners’ unit it lists in the Cartagena–Mar Menor area. Bookings cover the whole province, so a date may also be offered at the brigade in Murcia; wherever it is assigned, the number is valid throughout Spain.
Questions
Does a NIE let me live in Cartagena?
No. It is a reference, not a permission. Europeans who stay are entered on the register of residents; other nationals need a visa or a permit, then a TIE.
Cita previa NIE Cartagena: which trámite suits a buyer who lives abroad?
Pick Murcia, then the NIE trámite, named for certificates and assignment. Menéndez y Pelayo 6 lists it, and so does the brigade in Murcia: the confirmation tells you which one you have.
I received a NIE years ago for a holiday flat. Must I ask again?
No. The number stays yours. If you no longer have the paper, ask on the same EX-15 for a certificate showing it.
Does the NIE come as a card?
Not on its own. A non-resident receives a paper certificate. The plastic card, the TIE, belongs to non-EU residents.
Official sources
- policia.es: the Policía Nacional’s directory of foreigners’ units for the Región de Murcia (entry 30), Cartagena among them
- sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es: the State’s online booking of foreigners’ appointments
- sede.policia.gob.es: the Modelo 790 código 012, filled in on screen and printed for payment
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