Almost every extranjería procedure in Spain has a fee attached, and almost all are paid through the same document: the modelo 790 código 012. Our articles mention it constantly, in the NIE file, the duplicado file, the EU registration file, and never explain it.

It deserves one, because it is a common reason an appointment is wasted. The applicant does pay. The applicant pays the wrong heading, and a tasa paid for another procedure is worth nothing at the counter.

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What the modelo 790 código 012 is, and which procedures it covers

The 790 is the family of forms the Spanish state uses to collect administrative fees, and the código tells you which fee. The código 012 covers the documentation of foreign nationals: the tasa para los procedimientos administrativos para el ejercicio de la documentación de extranjeros en España. It is a payment slip, and its only job is to show that the fee for the procedure you booked has been settled.

The procedures that run on it are the ones people search for.

• Assignment of an NIE, requested through the modelo EX-15.
• Certificates issued by the Policía Nacional about your situation in the foreigners register, requested through that same EX-15.
• A duplicado of a lost, stolen or unreadable document carrying your NIE.
• The EU registration certificate, the green A4, requested through the modelo EX-18.
• The TIE, the residence card issued to non-EU nationals.

Consular fees, notarial fees and a gestoría invoice are not part of it: they belong to the wider budget in what an NIE number costs.

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Where to generate it, and why you never reuse a PDF found elsewhere

The form is generated on the sede electrónica of the Policía Nacional, at sede.policia.gob.es. You select the procedure you are about to file, and the site produces a PDF already carrying the amount for that option. You do not choose the amount and you do not calculate it.

That is exactly why a 790 downloaded from anywhere else is a liability.

• Amounts are revised. A PDF sitting on a blog for three years may print a figure that is no longer due, and an underpaid tasa is not a paid tasa.
• A blank scan carries no heading. The value of the generated form is that the selection has already been made for you. A generic copy filled in by hand puts that choice back on you, in Spanish.
• Generate it the same week you file, and never pay for the form. It is free on the sede electrónica, and any site charging for it is reselling a public document.
• Print the whole PDF, not just the first page, and keep every page it produces together.

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Choosing the right heading: this is the whole article

The código 012 is not a single fee. It is a list of headings, one per procedure, and they do not carry the same amount. NIE assignment, a certificate, a duplicado, the EU registration certificate and the TIE are separate lines.

The only figure we state here is the one our own published articles support: the tasa for an NIE application filed with the EX-15 is 9,84 euros. For every other heading the honest answer is that the form generated on the sede electrónica prints the amount for the option you selected, and that these amounts are revised. Read the figure off your own PDF rather than off any guide, including this one.

The heading you pay has to agree with two things that live outside the 790.

• The procedure booked on the cita previa portal. NIE assignment, certificates, the EU registration certificate and the residence card are different entries in that list. If the entry you used to get your slot is not the procedure you paid for, the file stops there.
• The form you are filing. An EX-15 goes with a tasa for one of the three requests the EX-15 covers. An EX-18 goes with the tasa for the certificado de registro de ciudadano de la Unión, not with the NIE line.

Two cases catch people out. The EU national who already holds an NIE from an old property purchase and now moves to Spain: the procedure is an EX-18, so the NIE heading is the wrong one. And the duplicado, which feels like a first application and is not, since you are asking for a new document carrying a number you already have, as set out in renewing your NIE.

Do not generate two tasas hoping one of them fits. Paying twice does not make the wrong one right.

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Filling it in

Once the heading is selected the form itself is short. Layout changes between versions, so work by function rather than by box number.

• Your identity, exactly as on the passport you will present. Same spelling, same order of surnames, given names in full. The officer compares the two documents side by side.
• Your identification number. If you already hold an NIE, use it. A first application has none yet, so you are identified by your passport. Never invent a number to fill a gap.
• The option corresponding to your procedure, already set by what you selected before generating the PDF.
• The amount, which the generator prints for you. Do not overwrite it, round it, or correct it because a forum said otherwise.

The tasa is always in the name of the applicant. If someone else pays it for you, at a branch or from their own account, the form still carries your identity, not theirs.

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How to pay it, and what a valid proof looks like

There are two normal channels.

• At a Spanish bank. You take the printed form to a participating branch and pay it there. The counter validates the paper, and that validation is what makes it proof. Some banks add a handling fee on top of the tasa.
• Online. Payment through the sede electrónica requires Spanish electronic identification, a digital certificate or Cl@ve, or a Spanish bank card depending on the channel offered. If you have neither, what a digital certificate and Cl@ve are explains how to get there.

What you walk in with is not the form, it is the validated form. On paper that means a bank stamp or a mechanical validation on the copy you keep. Paid online, it means the receipt the system issues, printed, carrying its payment reference. A PDF you generated but never paid proves nothing. Pay it before the appointment, not on the morning of it, and photograph the proof.

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If you pay the wrong heading, or arrive without the proof

Both cases end the same way. The file is not processed, and the appointment is single use, so you go back into the queue for a new cita previa. Waits run roughly 1 to 4 weeks depending on the province, and 4 to 6 weeks in Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and Marbella, with July, August and September the worst months to be sent away.

• The wrong heading does not convert. You have made a real payment, but for another procedure. To file, you generate and pay the correct one. What becomes of the money already spent is the next section.
• An unvalidated form is not a payment. Printing the PDF and putting it in the folder is the most frequent version of this mistake.
• A name that does not match. If the identity on the tasa differs from the passport and the EX-15, the documents no longer describe the same person.
• One tasa per applicant. A couple filing two EX-18 forms pays two tasas.

None of these is a legal problem. Each is an appointment spent for nothing, which in high season is the expensive part.

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Is the tasa refundable, and what about an unused one

Here we have to be straight with you: we cannot source a reliable answer, so we are not going to invent one.

We have found no confirmation we are willing to publish on whether a 790 paid for the wrong heading can be refunded, whether a paid but unused tasa keeps its value indefinitely, or whether it can be reused for a later appointment for the same procedure. Guides that state a rule on this rarely cite anything.

What to do instead: keep the validated proof and its reference, and ask at the office handling your procedure or through the sede electrónica of the Policía Nacional. If a refund route exists in your case it is an administrative claim, not something settled at the counter on the day. In the meantime, budget as if the tasa were spent.

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Paying it from abroad, and when a gestoría pays it for you

This is where the 790 becomes awkward. Both channels assume a foothold in Spain: a branch you can walk into, or Spanish electronic identification. Someone applying from Amsterdam, Berlin or London has neither on day one.

• Filing at a consulate. The consular route has its own fee schedule and its own payment instructions, which differ between consulates. Ask the one handling your file how the tasa is paid before generating anything.
• Someone in Spain pays it for you. You generate the form in your own name, send the PDF, and they pay it at a branch. What comes back to you is the validated proof.
• A gestoría handles it inside the file. Under a notarial power of attorney it generates the correct heading, pays it and files the form with it. The three routes, in Spain, at a consulate or by proxy, are compared in how to obtain an NIE number.

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Where to start

A working order of operations, because the sequence is what prevents the mistake:

• Name your procedure first: assignment, certificate, duplicado, EU registration certificate or residence card.
• Check which entry it corresponds to on the cita previa portal, and keep that wording in front of you.
• Generate the modelo 790 código 012 on the sede electrónica for that same procedure, and read the amount printed on your PDF.
• Pay it at a Spanish bank or online, keep the validated proof, photograph it.
• Complete the matching form, EX-15 or EX-18, in Spanish, and check that the identity on it matches the tasa and the passport character for character.

At Gestoraz we prepare and file Spanish administrative applications remotely, including the modelo 790 código 012 under the right heading, and we coordinate what usually follows: bank account, digital certificate and padrón registration.

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Official sources

• Policía Nacional, sede electrónica, sede.policia.gob.es: generation and online payment of the modelo 790 código 012, and the extranjería procedures it covers.
• Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones, Extranjería portal, extranjeros.inclusion.gob.es: official application models, EX-15 and EX-18, and the hoja informativa for each procedure.
• Cita previa for extranjería, sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es: booking, and the exact wording of the procedure your tasa has to match.
• BOE, boe.es: official publication of fee amounts and their revisions.