Adilya Abdrazakova

PhD Candidate in Economics at University of Alicante

Here you may find useful information gathered by my ignorance and way too many expenditures that could have been avoided. I want to think that all of us can contribute to dissemination of information in our department. This is work in progress and if you find better ways or have some information you would want to be public, be it academic or administrative procedures, in our program, feel free to email me or help update this guide.

Residence Permit

Our program is very generous in terms of administrative procedures. You may not know who to ask in the beginning, so this may ease your search. You will probably be mostly concerned about visa and residence permits so I hope you find it useful. Feel free to comment and ask me questions:

  1. 1 year: we, as foreigners outside of the EU, need to get our residence permit (TIE: Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero). Everyone here will ask you for a NIE (Numero de Identidad de Extranjero). It is not a card, it is your spanish identity number, typically they assign you NIE number in your visa. Once you arrive, you have to apply for a residence permit. This is done in a few steps, each has its caveat.
    • Appointment from the police department This could be painful. Appointments for the migration office are posted once or twice a week by the police department at a certain hour. And that time slot changes over time. You can ask the secretary to direct you to university staff who can help with residence permit. I recommend you go to her/his office in person. Also ask her if she knows the time when appointments are posted. In the worst case you can buy an appointment informally, last I checked it was around 30 euros. Typically you are able to get an appointment sooner or later, just make sure it is within the first month of your arrival.

    • Gather necessary documents for the appointment. Do ask the person in charge for the documents, and check them on this website. Below is the documents I provided in 2019, this may not be the case anymore, so double-check with a responsible person:

      1. Application Form. http://extranjeros.empleo.gob.es/es/ModelosSolicitudes/Mod_solicitudes2/17-Formulario_TIE.pdf
      2. Passport.
      3. Copies of the pages of your passport containing your personal details and visa.
      4. Two pictures, passport size and with white background.
      5. Confirmation of registration and payment of fees at the university.
      6. Empadronamiento certificate.
      7. Document 790 corresponding to the administration fee. You must go with this form to any Spanish Bank and pay the corresponding fee before presenting your application. At the bank, they will stamp this document as proof of payment and you must present it along with the other documents listed here. Link: https://sede.policia.gob.es:38089/Tasa790_012/

      There is a chrome extension of automatic translation or you can just google translate. The one that will take most of the time is a document called empadronamiento (padron), which certifies where you live officially. This can be done in SAIC Alicante, Sede Electronica San Vicente. This would require a contract between you and your landlord/landlady. As always you will have to get an appointment, you can find more information Alicante Ayuntamiento Tramites both on documentation and appoinment. It is better to call and ask where you can get empadronamiento for the first time calling 010, preferrably in the morning. If you call in the afternoon they would kindly ask you to call in the morning.

    • Show up at the appointment, get application proof, they will typically take 4-6 weeks to make your card. They will provide you with a document with a lot number (written at the bottom). Migration office posts every week physically on the door of the police station the lot number which is ready for a pick up. There are a few accounts online that track the lot number if you need it ASAP.
    • Enjoy your residence permit.

Useful applications

As soon as you receive your residence permit, go to registry office on campus and get cl@ve and digital certificate (you only need to take your residence permit) if you are planning to stay in Spain for some time. Details you can find como cl@ve That will save you a lot of queueing and calling for appointments time. You could process most of documentation online with those two. Also official documents have to be signed through the digital certificate, so get it before your residence permit loses validity. You can get both of these in registry office (‘Oficina de registro UA’) on campus: Building 28, Edificio Rectorado

If you graduated from non-spanish university you may be asked at some point to do “Equivalencia de notas”, translating your academic grades from undergraduate grading system (i.e 0-4.00) to spanish grading system (0-10).

Access to Healthcare

Couple of notes! There are a few types of residence permits: student, researcher, investor, etc. In the first year, you need to apply as a student. In the second year depending on the department’s funding situation, you could get a teaching contract which makes you a university worker. You will receive a social security document (processed through the university), granting you access to Social Security Portal, consequently to free healthcare in public hospitals in Spain. To get attended by health centers you will need a card called SIP. You can get it in the health center that you are assigned to, depending on your residence address (More details can be found here). I had to show padron, TIE and social security number. Note that ideally you will need padron to be at most 3 months old, this you can do online once you have cl@ve.

Travel Document (Autorizacion de Regreso)

IF YOU NEED TO TRAVEL outside of Spain but your card will expire soon, you do not have it physically, you will need autorizacion de regreso. This document allows you to return to Spain without residence permit, it is only valid within 3 months since your residence permit’s expiry date. There are a few ways of applying to it. There are very few appointments ever made, it is hard to catch: so you should proceed with either sending documents by post or applying online. As written in Oficina de Extranjeria de Alicante, specifically “Formas de presentar la solicitud”.

If you want to travel around European Union, you can also request European Health Card through social security portal.

  1. 2 year onward, once you get a university contract, that will ease your residence permit application. Typically those contracts expire at 31st of August. Around 2-3 week of July you should receive an email from PDI requesting your documentation to start a process for “autorizacion de residencia”. You will need this document to apply for a residence permit not as a student, but as a university researcher/ worker. Note that you can initiate your RP’s rennovation 3 months before its expiry date. Then you will have to go through appointment taking procedure, gathering of documentation, etc.

Administrative Application Procedure 101

Also, typically when you apply for grants or welfare, the way it works is the following: Government publishes a decree (a call for applications) with an upcoming grant or subsidy, it is called the boletin or diari oficial, for example. This one is a call for different grants, we are interested in ‘Subvenciones para la contratación de personal investigador predoctoral (ACIF).’ which is Annex I, so the details and documentation are placed in Annex I. First part states the general idea, then you have parts with requirements (‘Segundo. Entidades beneficiarias y requisitos de las personas solicitantes’, note that it includes required average grade from your undergraduate degree that you get from ‘Equivalencia de notes’ mentioned above), application package (‘Tercero. Solicitudes y documentación’), etc.

Also if you are interested in learning Spanish consider applying for EOI school in Alicante (https://portal.edu.gva.es/eoialicante/). It is much cheaper than private options. They provide official language certification too. I haven’s fully figured it out yet, so I will update this.