The NIE nightmare – foreigners forced towards dodgy dealings to get ID cards

Residency red tape is all too familiar for foreigners moving to Catalonia, but an increasingly broken system is forcing many to pay over the odds to obtain the requisite documentation. Cristina Tomàs White and Cillian Shields join Lorcan Doherty to investigate what is going on with NIE (Foreigner Identity Number) and TIE (Foreigner Identity Card) appointments. Skye, Zach, Antonia, Daria, Rupert and Leslie share their Kafkaesque attempts to navigate Spanish bureaucracy. We ask Carlos Prieto Gómez, a representative of the Spanish government in Barcelona, why getting appointments is so difficult and what is being done to improve things. This week's Catalan phrase, or rather, word, is pocavergonya, which means shameless. 

Om Podcasten

Little by little the sink fills up... Every week the Catalan News team explores a different aspect of Catalonia, from news and politics, to society and culture. Whether you live in Catalonia and need some of the current issues explained, or you’re simply curious about what makes this place tick. Either way, Filling the Sink has got you covered. Don’t worry if you don’t know much about this corner of land nestled between the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean. As they say in Catalonia, ”de mica en mica, s’omple la pica” - little by little, the sink fills up. Filling the Sink is a podcast from Catalan News.