NIE Madness

Atencion! Now waiting for P013 (my number) at the local city hall~

Empadronamiento

Every person who lives in Spain needs an NIE. It's something synonymous to a residency card... To obtain one, the first step is to actually register first with your local city / district to indicate that you live in that area. That thing is essentially called an Empadronamiento.

Theoretically, you're supposed to arrange for your Empadronamiento the moment you secure your flat (as you'll need to present your rental contract to the government together with your passport, etc.). Well, relaxed me waited til the last moment... which was earlier this morning. The problem was, well, my NIE appointment was at 4pm... and the certificate you get from the Empadronamiento is a pre-requisite to getting your NIE. 

You needed to book these appointments a week in advance. Fortunately, I did so a week prior. But knowing how these things work sometimes (through experience dealing with the government), I decided to book 2 appointments on the same day (there were no apparent penalties for doing so~ so why not). So yeah, I booked it twice so that if I missed the first, I could make it on the second.

I decided to go early this morning... reason for which was because I was thinking the latter appointment might have more people in the area. Turns out... it was a good idea!

Hurry hurry hurry!!!

True enough, at around 11am, a lot of people went to the city government to settle some sort of business. And, well, for me... my main incentive for doing it earlier was that I had an Accounting midterm to pass by 12pm. I was worried of the possibility of getting an Empadronamiento certificate would take longer.

Fortunately, things went without a hitch and I got my certificate within 25 minutes of being there. Not bad~ might I say. I was honestly expecting longer!

Funny thing that happened today

That was totally unexpected (and funny)! (Photo c/o A1)

I really like my Accounting professor. I've taken Accounting before in my own university and I feel that he manages quite well in being able to make learning Accounting fun (and as he says, "sexy").

What I like about him too is that he really tries to make sure that you understand the subject matter... so he usually opens up the floor for questions. I've actually benefited from this approach... through the questions of others I've come to learn new things... or better understand a concept in more detail.

Today was funny... a classmate of mine asked a question... but confused the income statement with the cash flows statement (by sheer mistake). My professor suddenly climbed the first row and stepped across two tables to be able to stand in front of my classmate to express his "anger". It was so funny!

You should've seen Jungmin's face! She was red from laughing! Haha, KS too! It was his star moment! Hahahaha!

NIE Appointment

Rachel suggested that we should leave for our NIE appointment ahead of time. She heard that the venue was far and that there was gonna be lotsa people going there. It may pay off to be there earlier.

And so, I went there with Rachel and KS. We boarded the train at Nunez de Balboa station and headed off to Aluche. The journey was something like 20 minutes by train. It took us to this majorly secluded area near the outskirts of Madrid. Like really? This is where we're supposed to get our residency cards?

Reminds me of a prison actually... seriously!

Oh wait! Maybe it really is a prison! It sure feels like one from the outside!!!

The venue had a really strange aura to it. It somewhat felt like a prison. The facilities were dilapidated, the security personnel were unfriendly... and well, seems like everyone here was dragged here against their will!

That's some pretty strange architecture going on there~

If the place didn't remind you of a prison... well, think about this instead. Imagine 20 years ago somebody opened a water theme park. Then, at some point... the facilities weren't maintained properly then things started to fall apart. 

After that, people stop going to the place and it's ultimately abandoned. Later, the place goes for sale then the government decides to buy the place. Things are make-shift at most possibly due to lack of funds to refurbish the area. Anyway, that was what the place was like!!

Refugee Camp in Madrid... no~ it's the line for our NIE!

But don't get me wrong... It's not I didn't like the place. It was just really interesting!

So yes, they had this massive tent where the end of the line supposedly was. And yes, the lines were snaking inside. A few of our schoolmates were there ahead of us (by like 20 people). But guess what, it apparently took them 30 minutes just to get from one side of the bench to another. Oh dear.

That's the spirit! Well, all these smiles were slowly erased by the hot temperatures searing through the tent~

It felt a lot like the lines inside POEA or NAIA. But possibly worse. Somehow, I wondered whether the kind of lines we get in the Philippines are just something we inherited from our former colonizers. Rachel, KS and I tried our best to keep ourselves entertained. We watched YouTube videos, exchanged stories and showed photos from our phones / passports. Anything to keep your mind away from the heat and the chaotic tent-environment seemed like a good idea!

The pace of things got faster the moment you entered the main building. Ventilation there was significantly better too. But... being there, I kinda had a hunch why it took so long to process lotsa people who were in that venue.

Turns out, the office clerks in charge of encoding our data into the computer databases were enjoying in on-hours gossip time.

I swear, the guy who was processing my NIE was technically in story-tale mode with his supervisor. Seriously, it was like a 3-minute job. Amazingly, he knew how to extend it to 17 minutes. He was just busy chatting away with his supervisor. And oh~ the supervisor was the same type of human... he probably cared less about people like me coming through their doors.

Finally, that story was settled (well, at least for me and Rachel). Apparently, KS went through all that trouble lining up but forgot to bring his Empadronamiento certificate (yikes!). And so, I heard he went all the way back to the city to get it... and hopefully come back in time before these folks call it a day early. I hope he settles that right away~

We have to come back to this place in 45 days to pick up the physical card. It's kinda funny though... these things you'll ever need to figure out if you lived in Singapore. In SG, things like this can be settled from start-to-end in 7 minutes. At this place... more than 5 hours I think!

So anyway, the 45 day count officially begins.