AN EU IDENTITY CARD?

History of the DNI

The Spanish Identity Card, known to everyone as the DNI (Documento Nacional de Identidad) recently celebrated 60 years of existence. These cards were initiated on 2 March 1944 under General Franco’s regime. The birth of the DNI was the result of chaos caused by the Spanish Civil War. Many citizens were either dead, missing or had emigrated. The War left the government not knowing the names of its people. Security letters issued by each of the previous warring faction were no longer valid. The 1944 decree would allow Franco’s government to know who had survived.

Prisoners and those under police surveillance were the first to be obliged to carry the DNI, and then came men who, due to their profession or business, had to change their address regularly. Shortly after, all men in cities of over 100,000 were issued with DNIs and then those who lived in cities between 25,000 and 100,000 residents. In due course the DNI became compulsory for women who needed to travel due to their employment and then finally it reached the entire Spanish population.

In the early days, when not every area was covered by a National Police station, civil servants travelled from town to town to carry out the process, using donkeys to reach far flung rural and mountainous areas. A date was set with the mayor and everyone in the village would queue up with their photos and birth certificates – if any resident lacked such documents, then the local priest was called upon to verify an identity.

Naturally Franco had DNI card number 1, his wife number 2 and his daughter number 3, while the following six numbers were left unassigned in the event of more births within the Franco family. Card number 10 was assigned to King Juan Carlos and number 11 to Queen Sofia. Their eldest daughter, Cristina, has number 12 and so on.

The DNI today

Today every Spanish national is obliged to carry a DNI, which includes the bearer’s signature, basic personal details and a reference to a national data bank in which everybody’s fingerprints can also be found. Incorporated is the Numero de Identification Fiscal (NIF) which as we have seen before is a fiscal, identity and passport number. Current DNI cards must be renewed every ten years and despite the inconvenience everyone recognises a need for some form of personal identification. In fact 60 years on, it is now an accepted way of life to have a DNI.

Surprising as it may seem, until 1962 the DNI was also given to all foreign residents in Spain but now their details are incorporated in a Residencia which also includes the Numero Identification de Extranjero (NIE) and is valid for five years.

Over the years the DNI card design has changed many times. The first design had green borders and the imperial eagle stamp – a symbol of the Franco government – in the top right-hand corner. Information typed on the card included, apart from the usual personal details (name, address, parents’ name, sex, date and place of birth), the person’s social security affiliation and job. It gave the person a category according to his or her economic status – useful in post-war years.

Many modifications have since taken place in both content and presentation. A new digital DNI card has been issued from 2005 to include a microchip that will speed up all the necessary procedures a person is required to carry out with public administration offices and via the internet.

Spain is not the only country to have national ID cards as the majority of European countries issue them. This opens the door to a future EU ID card that will allow the members of the Union to travel freely on a common card.

SUMMARY

There are four classifications of people in Spain. These classifications start upon entry and govern life thereafter, e.g. employment, tax and motoring.

• EU nationals on a tourist visit;
• EU nationals who are resident (which includes Spaniards too);
• non-EU nationals on a tourist visit;
• non-EU nationals who are resident.

Issues of domiciliation and nationality, so favoured in the UK, are largely irrelevant in Spain.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Many publications on this subject are out of date. Some even mislead accidentally. Some from financial institutions mislead deliberately. However one website is worthy of mention: www.Spainlawyer.com

Blevins Franks give a lucid explanation on the complexities of UK domiciliation on www.blevinsfranks.com

Two books giving an additional social background to expatriate living are:

Karen Riley, British on the Costa del Sol. London: Taylor and Francis Books Ltd.

King, Warnes and Williams, Sunset Lives. Oxford: Berg.