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The British Embassy in Madrid has assured UK nationals in Spain that the new Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero cards that carry incorrect wording due to a Spanish ‘administrative error’ remain valid.
Many expats have been issued with TIEs which state that you are the ‘Family member of a Union citizen’, rather than having the card in your own right.
The wording at the bottom of the card should read ‘Residence Permit/Titre de Sejour’.
Embassy officials say, “We have raised this with the Spanish authorities who confirm that this was an administrative error.
“Although this has now been corrected, cards with the incorrect wording may still arrive at police stations in the next few days.
“The Spanish authorities have also confirmed that, despite the inscription, these TIEs remain valid and we are waiting for instructions on how you should exchange this card for the correct one.”
The Embassy assures the new TIE cardholders, “We will post this information as soon as we have it.”
A further update on this issue. I collected my TIE yesterday. It’s wrong of course, although the “wrong” wording is correct in my case as I’m married to a German, ie a citizen of a member state of the EU. Nevertheless I am entitled to a card with the wording as Karl describes in his article.
I had quite a long discussion with the two ladies at the comisaría who attended to me. Soon this number had risen to four!
They didn’t really seem to know about the issue. They eventually produced a memo from their head office, I think, which acknowledged the problem but, more importantly for us Brits who may be concerned, the memo confirmed that the “wrong” cards are valid until they come up for renewal in 10 years. For that reason we will not automatically get a new card with the correct wording. If we want one, however, we just need to apply by filling in an online form at the website we had to use before. The new card will be provided free of charge so in the form field which requests the “importe de la tasa” you should enter “0€”. The memo “hopes” this re-application process should be able to be done without a cita previa.