Madrid · NIE, TIE & cita previa
Starting a job, a company or a degree in Madrid? Pick your line (EU, non-EU or settling in) and follow it stop by stop: the right form, the 790-012 fee slip, a cita previa at the desk that handles your case, and a clear brief for the morning itself.
Photo: Nan Palmero from San Antonio, TX, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped and resized.
Orientation
Madrid’s foreigner paperwork has its own geography. The police assign the NIE number at Avenida de los Poblados, issue the EU registration certificate at Avenida Padre Piquer, and hand over TIE cards from a separate documentation section at Poblados, while residence and work authorisations belong to the Oficina de Extranjería on Calle Silva. Book the wrong one and the morning is gone.
This site maps that network for people who arrive with a plan: new hires with a start date, founders due at a notary, families moving together, students before term. Describe your situation; the reply names your line, the form that applies, and the parts we can take off your hands, from the EX-15 to the appointment search.
The network
Every procedure is a stop. Board where your situation begins and ride on to the terminus: that is the whole route, in order.
For EU, EEA and Swiss passports: the number, the appointment and the green certificate that registers you as a resident.
Board at “NIE at a consulate” if you are still packing, at “Cita previa booking” if you are already here.
Questions on Line EFor every other passport, British ones included: the routes that end with a TIE card in your wallet.
Board at the stop that describes you, then ride on through fingerprints and collection.
Questions on Line NFor everyone, whatever the passport: the city register, the first job and the company, once the number exists.
Board here once your number is on its way.
How it runs
Dotted lines are the parts you walk with us; the last one, the appointment itself, is yours.
Your passport, your reason for being in Madrid and the dates that matter. A short form is enough to place you on a line.
You get the stops that apply to you, in order: which form, which fee, which desk, and what can safely wait.
We fill in the forms with you, generate the 790-012 slip and search for a cita previa at the office your procedure belongs to.
A short brief before the appointment: what to bring, in what order, and what the officer tends to ask. You walk in prepared.
Why the NIE matters
Almost every first-month errand asks for it. Without it, each of these stops is closed.
Madrid, locally
Wherever you actually live, in Chamberí, Salamanca, Malasaña, Lavapiés or a flat by the Retiro, most police paperwork for foreign nationals happens in the south-west of the city, on Avenida de los Poblados and Avenida Padre Piquer. Each of those desks takes different procedures, and none of them sees anyone without a cita previa. Your cita previa confirmation names the desk: that is the address to trust on the day.
Handles
Handles
Appointments through the administration’s cita previa system (icpplus).
Handles
Handles
Other sites: García de Paredes 65 (general registry and handover of duplicates only), San Nicasio 31 in Leganés, and Avenida Plaza de Toros 14 (Carabanchel).
Getting to Avenida de los Poblados
“Metro: Aluche” is the one travel hint the Delegación del Gobierno gives for the SACE; the station page of the regional transport consortium lists its lines, exits and buses.
Station information, buses included
Photo: Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped and resized.
Extranjería outside the capital
policia.es lists a foreigner unit in each of these towns, taking NIE assignments, EU certificates and fingerprints for the TIE.
Empadronamiento in Madrid
The Ayuntamiento registers addresses at its Oficinas de Atención a la Ciudadanía, by cita previa in the city’s own system. A padrón certificate needs no appointment at most of them.
Barrios and towns
In the city
Around it
Service
We start from your passport and your reason for being here, not from a generic checklist, so you only make the stops that apply to you.
Madrid spreads its procedures over several addresses. We match yours to the office that handles it before anything is booked.
Forms are completed in Spanish, the way the desks expect them; every step is explained to you in plain English.
We are a private service, not an office of the administration. You always know what we do, and what only the police can decide.
Connections
A number is one stop on a longer journey. These two partners pick up where this site ends: one for the relocation around it, one for a remote start on the NIE itself.
Relocation planning for Madrid with AnchorLess
Visas, housing and the administrative first weeks of a move to Madrid, coordinated for people who relocate for work or with their family.
Start a NIE online with Gestoraz
Handles the NIE request at a distance, for anyone who would rather start before the move than queue for a slot in the city.
Information point
Online, through the icpplus booking page of sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es: pick Madrid as the province, then the precise trámite (asignación de NIE, certificado de registro UE or toma de huellas). Slots are scarce; once your trámite is clear, we hunt for a time alongside you.
For the city, the asignación de NIE is at the SACE on Avenida de los Poblados, near Aluche, and the certificado de registro de ciudadano de la UE at the SACE on Avenida Padre Piquer 18. Addresses, hours and official sources are listed on this page.
The EX-15 form, your passport and a copy, proof of why you need the number, the paid Modelo 790 código 012 and the appointment confirmation. EU residents applying for the certificate use the EX-18 instead and add proof of their ground of residence.
The state charges its fee through the Modelo 790 código 012; generate the slip and the amount is printed on it. Booking the cita previa is free. Our help is optional and agreed with you before any work starts.
The Delegación del Gobierno lists the SACE desks at Poblados and Padre Piquer from 9:00 to 13:30, and the TIE documentation section at Poblados from 9:00 to 14:30 and from 15:00 to 19:00. Everything is by cita previa.
The SACE on Avenida de los Poblados is served by Aluche station: Metro line 5 and Cercanías C-5, with an exit at Avenida de los Poblados 41 and several city and interurban buses. Our guide to getting there lists them, with the sources.
Yes. policia.es lists eleven comisarías with a foreigner unit in the towns of the Comunidad de Madrid, among them Alcalá de Henares, Getafe, Leganés, Móstoles and Pozuelo de Alarcón. Each handles the NIE, the EU certificate and the huellas for the TIE.
Yes. Non-residents can ask for the number on its own with the EX-15, in Madrid or, before moving, at the consulate of Spain in the country where they live.
Full question lists
Every common question, sorted by passport: EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, or every other passport, British included.
Plan your route
A few lines are enough. We reply by email with your line, your stops in order and what we can do for each of them.
Prefer email? desk@nie-madrid.com
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