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How to get a NIE card if you don’t have a Spanish work contract?

It took me a lot of time and nerves to get my NIE/Certificado UE as a person who is not working in a Spanish company. You see, I own a company in another EU country and I don’t intend to change this situation any time soon.

Why do you even need a NIE card? I’m not expecting many people here to ask this question, but in case you need this explanation, here it goes. First of all, you need it to legally live in Spain. You are obligated to get it within 3 months from the moment you start living in Spain, so there may be some legal consequences if you don’t have it. But there is also a very practical reason for getting your NIE card: you won’t be able to sign service contracts (eg. for the internet) nor purchase things online from many Spanish shops (not everything you need is available on Amazon) without providing your NIE number. So if you plan on living a comfortable life in Spain, you definitely need to get the residency aka NIE card.

In my journey to NIE card, I had a lot of help since day one, but unfortunately all of the people who wanted to help me had work contracts or were registered as autonomo (self-employed) here in Spain. Some of them had been the residents for so many years, they no longer knew how the process looks these days. Of course, there are also companies who can help you to get your NIE, but I wasn’t feeling like paying €200-€300 for getting registered as a resident, which as an EU citizen I’m entitled to get for free (well, almost, but I’ll get to that).

My process of getting a NIE card (mind that NIE CARD is equal to Spanish residency and NIE number is just a fiscal number) was long and bumpy, also because COVID-19 came to Spain right when I decided I finally needed to get it done. So right after I printed everything out and got a cita previa in a town almost a 100 km from where I lived, the lockdown was upon us and they cancelled all of the appointments. But that actually saved me some time and helped me get everything more or less right.

It is extremely hard to get a cita previa (at least in Barcelona) mostly because of the companies that charge people for helping with the process. They have employees clicking through the website all day and I have some conspiracy theories on how they are able to take over all of the available appointments, but let’s leave them be. As long as there are people willing to pay them and it’s not illegal, they will be there.

So, the first thing that you should do is getting all of the necessary documents. Only when you have them all printed out, copied and packed in a folder, you can get to the mindless clicking festival.

So what do you need to apply for a NIE card, when you are earning your money outside of Spain and don’t plan to change this:

1. EX-18 form filled and signed - original and copy. In part 4, pick the option No activo con recursos suficientes y seguro de enfermedad. You might want to print it out when you already know when your cita previa is, so you can fill in the right dates. I had filled my form in on June 21, but had my appointment on June 30 and they asked me to cross out the incorrect date and write the current one on top.

2. A passport and its copy (not the whole thing, just the part where all of your data is, for me it was the first page).

3. TASA 012. Remember when I mentioned that NIE cards are almost free? Well it costs you €12. Fill it in, make sure to check the box next to Certificado de registro de residente comunitario o Tarjeta de residencia de familiar de un ciudadano de la Unión. Then print it out, sign it and go to the nearest bank office to pay for it. You can make them charge your account or pay with cash, it’s up to you. The bank assistant will print a bunch of strange numbers in the middle of the document and you’ll get back 3 out of 4 pages that you brought to them. Don’t make any copies of this document.

4. Health insurance. If you’re paying for the public insurance in your country of origin (in the EU), you would need a document (S1, E106, E109, E121 or other) that’s not older than 3 months and says you are fully covered by the public insurance. A proof of the most recent payment can help too.If you don’t have public insurance, you would need to get a private one in Spain. It has to have the adnotation sin limites ni copagos, which means that it covers everything including hospitalizations without additional payments. I got mine when I was opening my bank account. I told the bank assistant that I’m going to apply for a NIE card and he offered to get me the proper insurance too. So I took it. But you can get one from any of the insurance companies in Spain accredited by the government. Now, I copied my health insurance card (both sides) and they took it along with my application, but that wasn’t enough. You need a document with condiciones particulares, that has all your details and mentions the sin copagos part. You will also need a proof of the last payment or your bank statement printout that shows it (I had the latter).

5. €5.538,40 on your bank account, confirmed with Certificado de Banco. The official recommendation says that it can be any European bank, but I’m not sure if banks in other EU countries issue such documents. I have an account in one of a few banks that allow you to open an account with your passport (Banc Sabadell). I’m sure you can find another one, but most of the banks would ask for your NIE to open an account (that’s what I call a paradox!). Keep in mind that issuing Certificado de Banco can take time. In my case, 48h. Apart from the certificado, I also had my bank statement printout ready and it became handy, when they asked for a proof of health insurance payment.

6. Printed confirmation of your cita previa. Of course you will get this one later, but I’m including it in this list to make sure that you won’t forget to print it out and bring it with you. It’s not enough to have it on your smartphone!

So now, when you have all of the documents ready, play some nice music or an audiobook, go to SEDE website and start clicking. First screen asks you for the province that you live in. Then you need to click on the second drop-down TRÁMITES CUERPO NACIONAL DE POLICÍA and pick POLICÍA-CERTIFICADOS UE. The third screen is just the information, so scroll it down and click Entrar. The next one asks you about your personal data. Pick Pasaporte/Documento de identidad and fill it in with your passport number. Make sure that in Nombre y apellidos section you provide all of the names that are listed in your passport. If you have a second name in the passport, you should include it in this field too. Then pick your country of origin and teach the captcha. LIFE HACK: you can use the autofill (most browsers have this option built-in). It saved me a lot of time. Make sure the autofill option has your full name, phone number and email address. It should learn your passport number after a few tries. Next screen gives you four options, but you just need to click Solicitar Cita.

If you are lucky and/or live in a place where there are not that many foreigners, you might get a cita in the next screen. If so, just fill everything in (autofill helps). In the last section I just wrote Certificado UE. The last screen gives you the date and time and you’re good to go. Print it and show up for your cita with all the documents you already collected. Congratulations!

If you are like me, living in Barcelona or one of the other popular provinces, in the next screen you will most likely get the information that there are no appointments available at this time (I don’t remember the exact wording in Spanish, sorry). Then you have to repeat this process many times, at different hours of day and night (yes, they are sometimes getting available during the night!). At some point you will be successful, but you just need to keep trying, as often as possible. Don’t give up!

Remember that you can get your cita previa nearby, but more often than not, you’ll get it in another city in your province. Book it anyway.

Also, a few times, I was ecstatic when the website showed me the information that there is a cita previa available. Then I filled all of the information in and on the next screen it said that there are no citas that I could book. I don’t know why this happens. Is it a glitch of the system? No way of knowing this. But keep trying, eventually you will be rewarded.

I saved you a few dead ends I came by while trying to get my NIE card. The process I described should help you get yours as soon as possible. If you come across any problems that I didn’t mention, make sure to describe it in the comments section and I will look into it.

Good luck!

EDIT:

After we did the procedure for my husband, we learned that sometimes they would ask for the documents from the bank and insurance company to be stamped. It didn’t matter that both of them had little captions saying that they don’t need a stamp to be legit. Yeah, Spaniards... We got lucky, because both the bank and the insurance company’s office were a walking distance from the police station, so we were able to make it in half an hour. But if you want to be extra safe, just go to these places in advance and ask them to put a stamp on your documents. You can always have two copies, in case your official wants one without a stamp.

Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash

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How to write better posts and not get frustrated over time?

I would be lying if I tell you that I haven’t written anything over the last two weeks. I had. But my fiance, who’s also my editor, told me that it’s bad and I should rewrite it. And then read it and rewrite it again. And I’m just not this kind of person who can go over and over one silly text, so I lost my spirit for a while.

But I never gave it up. I just had to go and do something else. Regroup my forces.

I have this annoying habit of including tons of digressions that are meaningful to me. But unfortunately, to me only. I haven’t realized it earlier, but my mind can go astray at times. And I believe you if you say it’s hard to read.

Meantime, I’m reading “Better than Before” by Gretchen Rubin. It’s a book that makes me try to shape my habits. A habit of writing and drawing daily, a habit to eat healthier and to exercise regularly... And when it comes to writing, Gretchen says that she has the habit of writing at least one sentence a day. Not a full-length blog post. Not a novel. A sentence. It can’t be that difficult, can it?

Then there’s another thing. It’s hard to find something interesting to write about every day. Even if my life is not that boring at all! Last week I missed my flight home. This week I finally passed my driving exam. And these are only the big things.

And now I need to go to bed, otherwise, I won’t post this piece either.

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The Art of Recurrence

I think I already mentioned, that I’m not really good at routine. This was supposed to be a place, that I publish every day in, but you can see what happened. But look! I’m still trying!

Thank god there are apps, that actually help you do something every day. Also, every respectful service will send you reminders, that you should continue your work (I know for a fact, that Duolingo and Skillshare do this, but I bet they are not the only ones).

Learning is one of many processes that should be repeated in recurring intervals, very much like the sea taking over the beach - one wave can only take so much of the sand, but if it’s one after another, one day you wake up living on a cliff. That’s why the plan is to write every day, advance my graphic skills every day, learn Spanish every day.

Routine is needed in human life, but can also be terribly boring. It tends to kill the creativity and passion for things. Keeping the balance between routine and irregular activities is the only way to get stuff done and not die in the process. And this is the attitude I wish for.

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Happy stuff

It’s been three days without a single post. But I’ve got a good explanation for this negligence. I was partially going away and partially bringing the childhood back.

Let’s start with the second one. Gilmore Girls came back for one final season after time, that felt like forever, but was… 7 years, I think. Even though I haven’t been watching it from the time I was 16, the childhood thing is about the feeling. “Gilmore Girls” feels like the best childhood one could possibly have. And I, among many others, have been totally enchanted with this series.

Then there’s also the travelling part. I left my laptop safely at home and yesterday we arrived at Barcelona. I haven’t been to many places around the world. Actually, I’ve never been outside of Europe. And that’s only the continental part, as I’ve never been to the UK, Ireland or Iceland either. This doesn’t really give me much comparison, I know, but I just love this city - I can’t help it.

Funny thing, the first time I ended up in Barcelona it was on my way back from Portugal, having something like 20 hours between the flights. And back then, for some unexplained reason, I hated Barcelona. When I look back at that time, I literally have no idea why. It was January of 2008 and I must’ve had my brain damaged from the unnatural heat (twenty something degrees) or New Year’s Eve celebration. One or the other.

I came back to Barcelona in 2013. I can blame cheap flights and a promise of perfect weather for even considering it as my holiday destination. And just like that, I came and I fell in love with Barcelona.

It was almost two weeks that I spent there. I even accidentally missed my flight and had to go back by bus. That took me 38 hours of drive trough France and Germany and it wasn’t very cheap. But it also gave me two additional days in the city and pura vida on the beach with my Venezuelan friends. No regrets here.

After that, I come to Barcelona every year to load my batteries. I was there in May, July and October. This time we came in November and it’s still so beautiful and relatively warm (it’s supposed to be 15* today). I’m attaching the picture from our Airbnb balcony, so you can all get jealous. Right this moment in Cracow, it’s snowing.

My biggest dream is to move in here for good. Unfortunately the unemployment in Spain is high and my Spanish is still not good enough. But I don’t give up on my hopes.

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Thanks!

I created this Thanksgiving graphic for my company, which is US focused. In Poland, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. It’s a normal Thursday, like any other. Some big stores have assimilated Black Friday tradition, but it’s still nothing compared to the original.

I would like to thank all those who were reading my blog for this first week of its existence. Thank you and happy Thanksgiving!

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The best kept secrets of Networking

During the last couple of years knowing people has grown into a real business value. No one will argue, that networking is something, that can get you a job, a business partnership, an office space, or even money for your startup idea... If you know how to do networking, it can get you practically anything, including Knicks season tickets. However, there are two mistakes, that you can make and, when I look around, both are pretty popular.

First one is thinking that networking can be done over the Internet. Well, partially yes, but you can never truly connect with a person on Messenger or Skype. You can discuss things, even make some decisions, but can you buy someone a coffee on Hangouts? Or can you ask how’s their mother doing and if she bought this china set you recommended? Ok, you can do it if you already know the person pretty well. But imagine the confusion or even panic mode, if you do this when you two never met in person before.

The online network is just one of the possibilities and not even the best one. Facebook was created to keep in touch with people you already know, or at least met last night in a bar. And Tinder-like networking wouldn’t be much of a success, I’m afraid.

I was always a social person. Somehow, even when I was so shy, that I was scared of asking a shop assistant if they have my favourite chocolate bar in stock, I had a big group of acquaintances and a smaller group of friends. And the connection worked pretty well, especially when my granny wanted to locate me at one of my friends’ house. Back then, there was no Internet (not that we knew of anyway) and in order to gather a group of people, you either had to shout under their windows (later they started installing intercoms) or you could’ve call them on the stationary phone, but this one was never a preferred option.

But back to 21st century. It’s ok to use the Internet to communicate, but it’s not a networking tool. Don’t make this mistake and then say “well, this networking thing isn’t working for me”. You haven’t tried it, so how could you know.

The other thing I noticed some people do, is trying to network among an isolated and rather small group of people. It goes even farther, they are the people who all work in the same industry, have similar hobbies and life expectations. It’s like a clique. And you can’t really do networking in such a closed environment.

Of course, to meet the certain goal, you need to place yourself in a group of people that can help you with this particular objective. But in most cases, you just need to spread your connections, and to do this, you can’t only attend industry events.

Go, pick up a new hobby, start to learn salsa or karate, maybe even go to a ball game. Change your regular places and go find people that are new and fresh. If you want to run your idea through someone, do that in a local bar with that guy who knows everyone. You might get out of this bar with not only confirmation that your idea is brilliant, but also three potential employees and a Columbian nanny for your newborn (the last one is optional).

You like to think outside the box, then try to meet people outside the box. I know people from all around the world because through the years I was hitchhiking, couchsurfing, airbnbing, learning how to sail, going to dance lessons and sending postcards. And that’s only a few examples. I was also a bartender for over 3 years, so I even know some famous people - I drank vodka with Brian Viglione from Dresden Dolls once.

And remember, befriend people because they’re nice, not because they can provide you with something you need. It works better in 99% (1% is for statistics) of cases.

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Pushing it too hard

First of all, I wanted to share my latest project with you. I’ve been trying to come up with a nice logo concept for last  couple of days. I was thinking of bears (Urszula, my name, comes from Latin ursa - a female bear), but I wanted this bear to be special, and that’s not an easy thing to achieve. I’ve taken several classes on logo design, but I was obviously pushing it too hard. Eventually, I just started drawing and I ended up with this logo. I love it!

I was also thinking of what my blog should really be about. For last three days I was just writing about whatever was on my mind, but I was wondering, if I should maybe focus on something more professional, like ‘10 reasons why you need pictures in your blogposts’ or ‘How to write a perfect headline’. Then I realised, that I started writing this blog to practice writing, not to become another marketing guru. I mean, it might happen over time, but frankly, there’s already plenty marketers, who rewrite the same blogposts over and over again. And I don’t want to become one of them. At least not in this particular space.

Also, pushing it too hard was never good for my talents, so I would be risking writing something completely out of my personal style and possibly hard to read at all. We don’t want that, do we?

So that’s basically all for today. The bear design has taken a lot of my time and there’s no point in writing for the sake of writing. See you tomorrow!

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Embracing failures

I failed on my driving exam. Again. Actually, it’s been the third time. Nothing to be proud of. But nothing to be ashamed of either.

On a sidenote, driving education in Poland is neither full, nor very effective. You’re learning stuff and then you hear that no one does it in real life. Then why bother demanding it on the exam? And then the most important part of the exam is luck. You can pass the exam driving poorly, but having enough luck to avoid any potentially tricky situations, as well as fail the exam,being a good enough driver, but having a misfortune on your side. It’s like tossing a coin really.

Funny thing, I finished the above patch design yesterday having our next week getaway on my mind. Luckily, we’re flying, so no car will have to be at risk of meeting me somewhere, behind the wheel, on the road.

But no more digressions for now.

I was a straight A student for most of my life. I’m pretty smart (not to brag about it, but yes) and I was able to slide through all of my education stages pretty smoothly. The first crack on my shiny shell happened in the middle-school, when my math’s teacher gave me a ‘C’ as a final grade on the first year. I suffered from this one pretty badly, and when my family found out, they were so disappointed, that it felt even worse. Then I failed one exam on the first year of my studies at the university. I remember I was fantasising about leaving the country (I actually had a pretty good plan of not coming back from Italy).

As you can see, I’m not very good at failing. It’s definitely more stressful for me than any other situation in life. I’m good at working to a deadline that’s 5 minutes away, pretty cool with losing stuff (it doesn’t happen very often to me, though), chilled out during my travels, even if I just missed my flight back, or I’m stuck on a gas station in the middle of nowhere in Germany. No problem! I can do that all day!

But failing is something I was never mentally prepared for. It’s something that questions my entirety. It breaks the beautiful image of myself, having all kinds of struggles, but never being not smart or skilful enough to pass. I finished my studies with flying colours, I’ve got a sailing licence, that I passed in the first attempt, and a failure was never my thing. Until 2 months ago.

I was in shock. Even if it’s a pretty common thing in Poland to pass the driving exam after way more than one attempt. But me? Why me? Why did my mind and skills fail me this time?

And so today I failed for the third time. This time at least I can describe it with a twist - I almost tore the right side mirror off. Sounds like a pretty cool story to tell your grandchildren, but I also realised, that the most harmful part of this experience is the fact, that it’s gonna cost me money to get another attempt. Nothing more. My bright and shiny image has already been shattered into pieces, so I can very well forget about it and move on.

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Personal re-branding

If I’m to succeed in this blogging thing, I most definitely need a routine. Sounds boring, I know. If you ask me, routine is probably among the top five of my least favourite words. But how else can you call your daily writing habit?

Yesterday I mentioned personal re-branding as something I’m in the process of doing. I would like to give you a definition of it right here, but the truth is, I have no idea. I’ve found a definition of personal branding though:

Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. While previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal-branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging. (source: Wikipedia)

So re-branding would be doing it all over again, I assume. But then again it doesn’t matter that much what it means for everybody. What matters is what it means to me.

It’s been almost a year since I left the company that branded me for the first time in my life. When I started there, I was no longer a political science graduate (don’t judge, ok...) or marketing intern. I was a Community Manager. And there I was, proudly wearing the cape of community manager for over two years. The funny part is I never realised fully what this label meant, until I started looking for a new job.

So apparently community manager is this big bag of stuff. And you can throw just about anything to this bag: all kinds of marketing and advertising, online and offline stuff, support, events, design and parts of entrepreneurship. Plus whatever else you think would fit in here. Pretty awesome. And pretty terrible too.

Life teaches us constantly that you can’t be good at everything. It’s just impossible, even if you’re a genius and have a lifespan of a turtle. No one can master everything. Of course, the big bag of community management isn’t everything, but still plenty. So I decided to stop beating myself over my weak Google Ads knowledge and imperfect PR skills. It doesn’t mean that I don’t want to improve them, I definitely do, but if I can focus on something that makes me more happy and productive, why not just go this way in the long run.

I’m re-branding myself to a better designer and writer. Content creator. When I accomplish this, I will start to look for new opportunities to challenge myself in something else. So I will not start learning iOS, nor Python. I will not become a master of SEO in the following months. And I will not sew a patchwork bed cover anytime soon.

For the footnotes, you’re probably wondering what’s with the gingerbread angel picture (yes, it’s an angel, I know you wondered). You see, gingerbread is not good right after you bake it. It has to sit in a box for around a month to be eatable, otherwise your dentist bills can raise significantly. Last year I made a terrible mistake of baking gingerbread a week before Christmas - we had to wait till New Year’s to try them out.

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The ultimate answer

42. I know.

I believe some explanation is in order though. I started this blog in 2009 and it originally contained my hitchhiker’s stories and photos. Unfortunately two things happened. I never finished my stories, because... of things. And then I stopped hitchhiking at all, because I’m an adult now and I have 26 vacation days per year (this number significantly limits the time I’m willing to spend on gas stations in the middle of nowhere).

But time has passed and I decided I need to get back to writing, before I completely lose the ability to do so. I read a lot though, so it wouldn’t happen that fast. Also, since I mentioned I’m an adult, part of my job is to write interesting stories on stuff. Mostly technical stuff which can introduce some additional problems. But I’m currently... how do you call it? I’m rebranding. I’m rebranding myself to this successful person who lives in a loft and has time for everything. Obviously people like that exist only in books and on Instagram accounts. But it’s worth a shot.

So here I am, writing my first post on my not-so-new blog. I also started polishing my design skills, which I have many, but most of them still uncovered. This leads me to the point where I tell you that I will be throwing my drawing exercises at you, my mysterious reader. I’ll start right away, with my today’s project, so you can clearly see how much talent I've got. Oh my.

Also, a spoiler alert, I’m Polish. This means that the only thing I’m left with right now is my Monty Python style, profoundly seditious sense of humour. If you don’t fancy that, please kindly leave.