This page covers Gipuzkoa only. If your appointment is elsewhere, start with the immigration appointment service for all of Spain, or go straight to fingerprint appointments, collecting your TIE card or Spanish citizenship by residence.

Which office in Gipuzkoa is yours

Immigration formalities in Gipuzkoa are split between two administrations, and that is where most mistakes begin. The National Police deals with whatever needs you physically present and your biometric data: fingerprints, issuing and collecting the TIE, NIE assignment, EU certificates, asylum applications and travel documents. The Oficina de Extranjería decides the file on paper: initial authorisations, renewals, extensions, arraigo, family reunification and modifications.

The official list for Gipuzkoa names 2 police sites and 1 Oficina de Extranjería office. Which one you attend follows from the procedure, not from where you live in the province.

The practical consequence is that one formality usually needs two or three separate appointments, weeks apart. A renewal, for example: you file the case administratively, wait for the favourable decision, then request the fingerprint appointment with the police, and a third appointment follows to collect the card.

Before the fingerprint appointment you need fee 790 code 012 paid and printed. It is not paid at the office, and arriving without the receipt means losing the slot.

Beyond Gipuzkoa city

Not everything is concentrated in the provincial capital. Besides Gipuzkoa, the official list covers Irun, San Sebastian and Donostia-San Sebastian — 3 further localities.

This matters twice over. Availability: a smaller office often releases slots when the capital has none, and nothing stops you booking there if it offers your procedure. And the journey: check the address on your confirmation before travelling, because in Gipuzkoa the fingerprint appointment and the card collection are not always at the same building.

What the police handle here

• Fingerprints (card issue) — the appointment where your prints and photograph are taken so the card can be manufactured; booked after the authorisation is granted, within one month of the notification.
• TIE collection — a separate appointment from the fingerprints, roughly 30 to 45 days later, and you need the receipt you were given then.
• NIE assignment — the number itself, on form EX-15; no fingerprints are taken and what you receive is a certificate, not a card.
• EU certificates — the green registration certificate for EU, EEA and Swiss citizens on form EX-18, plus residence and concordance certificates.
• Asylum and the red card — the appointment to formalise the application and the documents issued while it is pending, renewed until the decision.
• Travel documents — for refugees, stateless people and residents who can prove their own country will not issue a passport.
• Statelessness and the cédula — recognition of statelessness and the registration document that follows it.
• Return authorisation — the permit that lets you leave and re-enter Spain while your card is being issued.
• Invitation letters — the document a resident signs for a visitor, processed at a police station.

What the Oficina de Extranjería resolves

• Initial authorisations — first residence and work permits, including employed and self-employed routes.

What does not appear in the Gipuzkoa list

These headings are absent from the official list for Gipuzkoa: arraigo, family reunification, EU and Spanish family members, renewals and modifications, long-term residence, minors and former wards, study stays and stay extensions. That does not always mean the procedure is closed to you — some are resolved centrally, others sit under a differently worded heading — but you will not find that exact wording in this province's system, and picking the closest-looking option instead is a common way to lose a slot.

Booking without losing the slot in Gipuzkoa

• Select the procedure by its exact official wording. Similar names are different procedures.
• Pay fee 790 code 012 beforehand and bring the printed receipt.
• Bring your passport original and a photocopy; many offices in Gipuzkoa do not photocopy.
• Arrive fifteen minutes early with the appointment confirmation, on paper or on your phone.
• Fingerprints and card collection are two appointments. Booking one for the other means being turned away.
• If the capital shows nothing, try the other Gipuzkoa offices that offer the same procedure.