If you've been reading my blog, you've heard my talk a little bit about the NIE (Número de identificación de extranjeros). In short, this is my foreigner identity card while I'm here in Spain. Anyone who stays in Spain for more than 6 months has to apply for this card. Last week, I went to TWO different offices trying to apply for my NIE without any luck. They each gave me an address for some other place to go. Today, I finally ended up in the right place. Although the government's website doesn't say this, there are specific places that you can go depending on your situation. For example, my roommate can go to the first station I visited last week because she is from Germany which is part of the European Union. Since I'm here on a student visa AND I'm American, I had to go to the office I went to today. Of course, I couldn't find any of this information on the internet and the phone number for the station doesn't work
.
Today's visit to the police station for my NIE was once again a disaster. Not quite as bad as last week, but
this week the bureaucracy of it all made me cry. The first step was to find the police station--which is really out of the way. It's north-ish of where I live and far enough away that I had to take the bus to get there. However, the bus doesn't tell you what stop is next so you have to be familiar with where you are going so you know when to get off. I followed our route on my map and I still got off one stop too late. Fortunately, I ran into someone on the street and she helped me figure out where to go.
Once at the police station, I only had to wait for two people in front of my before I got to talk
to someone. That's when my trouble started. First, the employee points out
that I don't have a Spanish stamp on my visa (which would mean that it technically wasn't active). I told her I didn't have one there because I entered
the European Union through another country so I have a Polish stamp on
another page. There was some discussion before we cleared that whole thing up. Then, she told me I needed to make a photocopy of that stamp and go to a
bank to pay the NIE fee.
Since this office is in the middle of basically nowhere, that was a
little hard. After walking about 5 minutes in one direction, I managed
to find a bank were I could do the fee transfer. In Spain, most things
are done by transfer. You go to a bank and say that you want to
deposit X amount of money in Y person's account. So if you owe someone some money, usually you'll just make a transfer. Or, if you need to pay your rent, you just transfer the money to your landlord's account. That's basically what
they here do instead of writing checks. In fact, I haven't seen any checks here--other than the one that Fulbright wrote to us. While wandering around, I also managed to find a place to
make photocopies and I was ready to apply for my NIE!
Only that's not how it turned out. I went back to the police station and waited in
line some more--which I didn't mind because I thought that I would be done soon. When it was my turn, I talked to another employee and she looked at my documents and wondered why I didn't have a letter from the university.
I tried to explain that I'm here on a student visa but I'm not taking
classes at the university and that I'm studying through teaching
English. Then, she told me that I needed a letter that had my school's
address on it and that the Fulbright letter I had wasn't enough.That's when I hit the wall. I was exhausted by all of this bureaucracy and I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I started to tear up in the office. I've been to 3 offices, wasted 2 days off, I've
had to go back and forth so many times, and I was just sick of jumping through hoops.
So I told the employee that I would have to go to my computer and print
out the right document and I'd be back. I think she just wanted me to leave before I really started to cry. I went back to the place where
they made a photocopy for me and I basically begged them to let me
print something. The employee was super nice and sympathetic and
helped me out right away! Soon, I was on my way BACK to the police
station where I, of course, had to wait a little longer.
When I went through the
doors, the fingerprinting guy asked if I had gotten everything
resolved. He had seen that I was upset before and just wanted to
make sure I was alright--which I thought was super sweet!
This time I sat down with yet another employee. She started to tell me
that the letter I had just printed wasn't necessary. I just about lost
it then! I went to all that trouble to print the letter and she was telling me I didn't need it anymore?!?!?! I explained to her that
someone else had JUST told me that I needed because I needed a
document with my school's address on it. When I pointed this out, she realized that I did
indeed need the document--apparently she hadn't read all of the
Fulbright letter I brought.
Then, it was FINALLY my turn to be fingerprinted. I have to go back in a month
to pick up my actual card, but I have my ID number!
Lesson learned: Bureaucracy sucks, but Spaniards are nice and willing
to give you a hand when you need it.
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