la condessa de mijas

For those of you who don't have your NIE numbers yet, the procedure has changed and even our lawer didn't know about the changes! You have to go to the Subdelegacion del Govierno in Almeria City ( near the Parque Maritimo by the port). You need to fill in 2 application forms for each person. You also need your passport and 2 photocopies of each passport. This was the bit our lawyer didn't know - you need to justify the reason you want NIE numbers eg a copy of the purchase contract for each application.Our poor lawyer has to get back in his car and drive back to his office (an hour each way) and get 2 copies. By the time he got back the queue was huge and we had to wait ages. Best to get there as early as possible. Once we finally reached the front of the queue it only took about 5 mins and the paperwork will be ready in about 10 days. This then has to be collected from another government office - not sure where as our lawer is collecting for us. If you want someone else to collect you also have to give written instructions at the time of application in Spanish.

I am very glad our lawer was with us because this would have been very difficult for us to have done alone. My spanish is very basic and I don't think I would have understood the bit about the justification of the reason for the application.

Hope this helps anyone who still has to get their numbers.

We went to sort out our NIE numbers last Friday & we were at the office about 11.30 & it was empty.

We haven't actually signed our contract yet (thats another story!) but a copy of the documet completed when we paid our reservation deposit was sufficient.

Also, our NIE numbers are being collected on our behalf but we haven't given any permission, in english or spanish. However, our agent is doing this all the time, so I don't know whether it is strictly necessary.

We were also told it would take about 10 days & that they have to be collected from the police station.

Noreen