\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Spanish ID card is the size of a credit card and much easier to carry around than a passport\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
MADRID \u2013 Plans for a UK digital ID card have been met with pushback from civil rights groups in Britain, but the daily reality of these schemes is far from ominous.<\/p>\n
As a British national living in Spain, I am required to have an ID card. It\u2019s the size of a credit card and much easier to carry around in my wallet than a passport.\u00a0If I were to lose it, it might also be easier to replace.<\/p>\n
Spaniards and other foreigners must carry versions of these cards, too.<\/p>\n
New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n
Almost every day, I use this card for the most routine of things. If I want to buy anything from a rail ticket to a flight or even a computer, I am usually asked for my TIE number. Why? It can be a way to record a business expense or simply to identify myself as the purchaser.<\/p>\n
Any dealings with officialdom \u2013 and in Spain bureaucracy is a formidable thing best avoided if possible \u2013 requires this number. If I want to register with the council, I must show the card. Being on the council register is important because otherwise you cease to exist in the eyes of the authorities.<\/p>\n
Beyond this, I need my TIE number to get hospital appointments, pay taxes, send registered mail or if I have any dealings with the police.<\/p>\n
When my flat was burgled, the only way to get a criminal report from the police to claim back the cost of the stolen goods was to use my ID card.<\/p>\n
The ID card is so much a part of daily life that rather like your own phone number, you memorise it quickly.<\/p>\n
Since Brexit, I have had to use the TIE card to stop myself being subject to the 90-day rule which UK tourists face. When I arrive at the airport, I must show the card and declare \u2018Soy residente\u2019. This means I can stay for an unlimited amount of time.<\/p>\n
Often, officials will want to see the physical card rather than a copy stored on a phone, so you need to have it with you wherever you go.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, it was not easy to get the card in the first place. It requires two trips to the police station and plenty of form filling. When I took my sons to get theirs, there was a mix up in the papers and officers initially told me one of them was living illegally in Spain. Thankfully it was quickly resolved.<\/p>\n
No one in Spain regards having an ID card as an assault on their civil liberties.\u00a0By and large, it is seen as a way to avoid using passports and to identify law-abiding citizens.<\/p>\n
Of course, this might be a hangover from the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, who died in 1975, during whose rule challenging authority was not a given as it is in Britain or other countries.<\/p>\n
Yet the reality is my TIE card makes daily life easier, not harder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Spanish ID card is the size of a credit card and much easier to carry around than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[3677,2000,299,6657,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-453571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-digital","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-migration","12":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115272387496162582","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}