NIE Castellon - What to do when the portal won't list appointments available

 



If you're reading this, chances are you are struggling to get an appointment online to comply with a requirement.

Facebook Expat Groups has daily posts asking for help with the online portal of Castellon's Extranjeria.

Before we get the artillery out

Try to log on the portal at precisely 13:30 pm on Fridays.

Not 1 minute before - and not 1 minute after -

If you already tried that, and did not succeed, then follow these steps.

This sequence works for me when I help newly arrived expats in Castellon:

First step:


Brigada Provincial de Extranjeros y Fronteras:
Plaza Teodoro Izquierdo, no. 6 
12004 Castellon

Parking: difficult to find a space, heavy residential area, parking meters.


The police officers outside the building will ask if you have an existing appointment - because they have a list of names on a spreadsheet for that day.

They want to locate your name on the spreadhseet to see if you are booked, before they grant you access to the building -

But -- they are obligated to let you enter -  even if you don't have an appointment - 

I strongly recommend you arrive EARLY, no later than 8:30 am

If you arrive at 9:00 am, the queue will already be long, and the police officer will be quite busy.

If he is alone without another officer to help him sort the queue, this might get a bit chaotic. 

When the police officer get to you in the queue, tell him you don't have an appointment, but that you will wait until they have a time slot available. 

-->This could be at the end of their shit, arond 1:30 pm

Be ready to wait outside (even in the rain or the cold) for a long while.

When you are called and invited to enter the building, you will get assigned to an agent's desk.

Tell him/her that you need an appointment because you could not get one using the portal online.

At this point, he/she will share with you when the next batch of appointments is scheduled to become available on the portal and they will give you the day and the time to log on the portal. 


Second Step:

 
Comisaria Provincial de Castellon
Calle Rio Sella, no. 5
12005 Castellon

This is the jurisdiction overseeing the Brigada de Extranjeria in Castellon

Parking: easy, plenty of spaces, no parking meters, towards outside of town.

Arrive EARLY, no later than 8:30 am to get in the queue. 

To streamline the long queue, they like to separate people who have appointments from those who show up without a booked appt.

When you reach the booth, tell the security guard you do not have an appointment.

He will then ask you what you need done. 

Tell him you have completed Brigada Provincial (see step 1 above) by going there. but were not given an appointment by the agent, and cannot access the appointment calendar on the portal.

Advise you would like to complete a  complaint form "Hoja de Reclamacion" 

Don't be confrontational.   Stay as cool as a cucumber.

There is a strong chance the guard will ask you to wait on the side until he gets someone who is available inside to help you. 

When that happens, he will direct you where to go.

An agent will then coordinate internally with someone at Brigada Provincial.

The above scenario will take a while, be patient. 

The outcome is unpredictable. 

Depending on the day's workload, the pre-scheduled appointments needing attention and the staff available that day, you might land on an agent who is in a "mindset" to help you - IF you are willing to wait for a long while in the designated area,  until he gets back to you... 

That could be near the end of their shift, when they have processed the pre-booked appointments for that day. 

As I mentioned previously, the outcome depends on the staff you land on, starting from the police officer at the caged booth up to the agent you land on, if you make it that far.

I have self-prepared and organized what I call this "day excursion" on three occasions, for expats in Castellon:  1 solo expat from the EU (Poland), 1 couple from Canada and a couple from Ireland.

I often get asked: What happens if you "get the run-around" at this Comisaria?   

Can't say ... as I've haven't run into this scenario. 

Most likely, it is the combination of my native fluency in Spanish, experience of Spain's multi-level governance, and EU accreditation in Administrative Law that together become a deterrent to brushing me off.  

Friendly Reminders:


=> Do NOT go to Comisaria directly by skipping Brigada Provincial (Step 1).

Remember, both these jurisdictions are with the Ministry of the Interior.
They represent the National Police.

=> You must have a Spanish phone number (country code 34).

If you don't yet have your own local phone number yet, then ask someone to use theirs.









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