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Spain and its not so wonderful public administration.



A week ago I queued up at the National Police Station in Málaga to get a replacement of my N.I.E as I am a bit clumsy and lost it. I queued for around an hour and a half to be told to come back on the 22nd of September at 9:30 with my passport and my university inscription (to prove I was a student), I was given a form to fill out and another to take to the bank to pay a fee of 10.60 euros to get my new NIE paper, I was also asked to bring something that shows I am still being "maintained" by my parents as they put it.



This morning I arrived at 9:20 at the station for my appointment, all papers with me, I queued for about 25 minutes and it was my turn finally, I walked in and the nice spanish lady with big hair at the desk took my details and started typing, she then asked me for my European health card, I explained I have been in Spain for 12 years and have a spanish health card, she said that wasn't enough and that I needed another paper to prove I was entitled to national health in Spain, I explained I had my parents yearly income papers that showed they have worked and therefore I am still covered by their health, obviously it was not enough and I got told to go the Social Security office, after an hour driving around, looking on the Internet and asking 7 different people I found the street the office was on, I then walked around for another 25 minutes trying to find the office that obviously had no sign posts at all. Finally I see it, a little red door with "Seguridad Social" on it. I walked in, explained at information and got told I had to go to the building opposite, I did and again got sent elsewhere. 

Finally I found the right office at 11:10 and got given an appointment for 12:10. I wasn't expecting anything else. I proceeded to wait anxiously surrounded by people shouting. Thankfully I didn't have to wait long and was seen early and out of there by 11:45 and off I went back to the station, I skipped the queue and walked straight in to the woman I had seen previously, she told me she hadn't had any luck with anyone she had seen that morning, she took my passport to make a copy and then proceeded to complain about how "you need a master's degree to worker to copy machine" and how "hard it is to work in these conditions and at this tiny desk". Ten minutes later I was finished. 



I don't understand how something as simple as getting a duplicate of an ID is so difficult, I am on the system and have been for 12 years, she could see that by typing my little number in but either way she had to give me the run around and make me spend my whole morning hunting down an office for an extra paper.  My dad always said that some people are put on a special course before working in public admin in Spain, I'm starting to realise why he says it. The never ending stacks of paper they must have in their files!

It's ironic really how a country thinks they are far better than many others and gloat that they are becoming more computerised when you still need masses of paper to get anything sorted. 
I wasn't surprised at the answer I got when I asked the lady who attended me if in future appointments could be made on the internet or telephone, "we do not have that possibility at the moment, there are a lot of foreigners that need different papers so they must queue up a couple of weeks before they need the appointment", just as well I wasn't in a massive rush to get my ID. 

Complaining in a simple way, Hannah. 

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