My Bristish husband and I are moving to Madrid. When I contacted the Spanish Consulate in Sydney (and explained that I have only an Australian passport and residency) I was informed that all we need to do is front up to the local comiseria with our passports and marriage certificate. I told them I was surprised it was that easy and they sent me some documents that say the same thing. I also phoned and spoke to someone who confirmed this. Fantastic.

After visiting Madrid to do some research etc I’m wondering whether we MUST go to the Comiseria closest to where we live or whether we can go to another Oficina de Extranjeros in Madrid. The main problem being that there are loads of immigrants in this area and the queues are insane. I’m hoping that after we register at the town hall (which no one seems to have mentioned but apparently we need to do this first) we can head elsewhere to apply for the NIE. Any ideas?

Fingers crossed my husband can apply from London which may make things easier…

Appreciate any help available, what’s with all the different rules depending on where you live in Spain? I’m so confused. Thanks.

hey,

got the same problem. In which region are you living in Madrid???

first thing you got to do, is to go register in town hall. It took me 5 minutes.(it’s called “empradonamiento”)

With that piece of paper that they give you, you can request a NIE. the queus at extranjeria are INSANE in Madrid.

I also requested my NIE through the embassy in brussels.;still waiting…..

there is another office somwhere in Madrid(close to embajadores) where it is much faster to apply for a NIE, but I think it’s only for EU citizen. I will go there the second week of august and if you want, i’ll let you know.

Thanks for your help! So as far as you know it’s ok to apply here in the UK and then follow up in Madrid? I think we’ll try the same thing, we’d love to hear how you go at the comiseria too (we have a friend in Parla that we’ll be staying with initially, apparently its the place in Madrid with the MOST immigrants applying, such a pain). Thanks again and good luck!

are you EU citizen? cause then you can go to another office where the lines are much “smaller” you just wait then 1 or 2 hourqs in line to make an appointment:-) Yes, i am not joking:-) and then you just come back on the specific date and time.