The view from the back

It was a beautiful day for me and the lovely wife and the MIL to all head off for a day out , the sun was shining the breeze was light and the roads as always were quiet. Our destination? The national police station Almeria. After an easy drive down we arrived just after 10am , the place was swamped so after several turns around the streets trying to park we went for a drive along the coast road heading back north towards the airport, looks a little forgotten down there but nice, some one had just splashed out on a couple of dozen 6m palm trees and they were busy planting them, the med was just about a flat calm. Enough of all that around the airport island back on the autovia and attempt 2 . Straight in to a parking place and the crowds seemed smaller? Strange it had only been 45 mins? But in we go , queued for the reception for 30 mins when we got to the front the lovely wife asked where to hand in the EX18/ NIE , take a seat ? Odd answer no number no ticket ? so we sat looking a bit perplexed then we saw some one we sort of knew ( worked in the asisa store, we’ve bought so much for this furnished villa we get discount ) so we asked and she had her own issues but said that no number is not right. So we sat again and decided to queue for the desk where the lovely wife got the forms last time, only 20mins here, result! . no as you know it was a very  helpful lady on this desk but today it was a older guy so the lovely wife presented what we had to him saying she would like a NIE, he looked through the application , EX18, pictures, padron, rental agreement, bank statement, health cover note, bank receipts for the tax. Put them all in the folder and handed it back and pointed to a seating area behind a rope. Progress? So we went across the room and was turned away from the roped area and shown the seats we had started in ? so we sat again and then noticed that the previous guy had gone and the lady from the last visit was in his place, so up we went , no queue efficient eh ? we presented the folders back to her she looked through, said ok, no need pictures, then a whole lot we didn’t understand, so I explained we had poor Spanish ( durgh ) so this ace woman got up and went in the back office and brought out a smart looking young lady who had excellent English and explained that we needed an appointment and should make it on line , not now but on line ? Yes not now but on line and handed a sheet of paper that listed all the documents that are required and that examples are on line. Talk about drip feed the info. So our bitter sweet relationship with this office continues, OFFICE OF THE ALIENS – it really is like the arrivals in MIB. Having drove the 90min back home (home? what’s France like?) we set about translating the forms we received and looked at the web site and gave up, our folders got an OK but we may be short a financial statement if this is different to a bank statement, one form asks for health care the other never mentions it , one statement says after making a footprint your NIE will take 40 days, foot print , so far they haven’t recorded any info so I would assume were a long way off and as for the web site well I love the web but what? So when in doubt get a professional in, so our gardener is having a look on Friday after sorting the trifids he’s helping the aliens.