Cita previa: how to book an appointment with Extranjería, DGT, the tax office and the police

What a cita previa is and why you get nowhere without it

A cita previa is an advance booking for a specific date and time at a specific office. Since the pandemic it has become mandatory in practically every Spanish state institution: turning up and waiting in line is no longer an option. The system is uniform in spirit, but each agency has its own portal, its own rules and its own degree of slot scarcity.

The main thing to get used to: getting the appointment is a separate quest, sometimes harder than the procedure itself. In the big cities (Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga) free Extranjería slots for popular procedures disappear within minutes of publication. Hence a whole grey market: bots scan the portals, book the slots and sell them. Below is how everything works officially and how to get appointments without overpaying.

Extranjería and fingerprints: the main portal

All foreigner procedures - residence applications, renewals, fingerprinting (toma de huellas) and collecting the TIE card - go through the single booking portal icp.administracionelectronica.gob.es. The routine:

1. Choose your province - each one has its own list of procedures.
2. Choose the procedure (tramite): for example, "Policia - toma de huellas (expedicion de tarjeta)" for fingerprints or "recogida de tarjeta" to collect a finished card.
3. Enter your details: NIE or passport number, your name as in the document, your country.
4. The system shows offices and available dates. If there are no slots, the phrase "no hay citas disponibles" appears - not an error, but a signal to come back later.
5. Confirm the booking with a code from SMS or e-mail and save the justificante - the PDF with your booking number. Without it you will not get in.

Important: for many Extranjería procedures (residence renewals, for example) no visit is needed at all - filing is possible online through the Mercurio platform with an electronic certificate. How to get one is covered in our article on the certificado digital and Cl@ve.

DGT: licences, exchanges and cars

The traffic authority sees people by appointment in all its offices (Jefatura de Trafico). Two ways to book:

• online at sede.dgt.gob.es - the cita previa section, choosing the office and procedure type (issuing, licence exchange, vehicles, exams);
• by phone on 060 - the state helpline.

Plenty of DGT services have long needed no visit: paying a fine, getting a duplicate licence or vehicle document, checking your points - all done in the miDGT app or on the website with electronic identification. If your goal is exchanging a Ukrainian or Russian licence, start booking early: in the big provinces the queue for conductores procedures stretches out for weeks.

The AEAT tax office: website, app, phone

The tax office has the most developed booking system. You can arrange a cita previa:

• on the portal sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es - the "Cita previa" section, available without a certificate (by NIE/NIF);
• in the official "Agencia Tributaria" mobile app;
• on the booking phone lines listed on the AEAT website (the automated line runs around the clock).

Useful to know: a large share of questions is resolved through a phone cita - the AEAT specialist calls you at the appointed time. For tax returns (Renta) there is a separate booking campaign in spring with its own deadlines. And almost everything, from certificates to filing forms, is available online with a certificado digital or Cl@ve - with no appointment at all.

Police and the TIE: fingerprints and card collection

The TIE card is physically issued by National Police comisarias. Two visits are involved - and both appointments are booked on the portal icp.administracionelectronica.gob.es in your province's section:

1. Toma de huellas - giving fingerprints after your status is approved. Bring: the booking justificante, passport, the approval resolution, photos, the paid fee (modelo 790 codigo 012), padrón.
2. Recogida de tarjeta - collecting the finished card a few weeks later, with the resguardo from the first visit.

Huellas slots are the scarcest resource in the system: they are the ones bots buy up most often. If no appointment appears for weeks, check the portal at different times of day and watch for new batches being published - more in the tips below.

Slot tips and protection from resellers

Rules that statistically raise your chances of catching an appointment:

• Check early in the morning. Agencies most often release new batches of slots at the start of the working day, benchmark 8:00-9:30.
• Monday and the first days of the month are the typical time for new calendars to be published.
• Catch cancellations. People cancel bookings throughout the day - a short check every couple of hours works better than one attempt a week.
• Fill in the form quickly. The slot is not reserved while you type: have your NIE, passport and phone ready in advance.
• Check neighbouring offices in your province - in smaller towns appointments are easier to find.
• Use online filing with a certificado digital wherever it exists - a legal way around the slot shortage.

Warning: a cita previa is always free. Ads offering to sell a cita for huellas come from resellers who book slots with bots on other people's details. Buying such an appointment means handing your passport details to strangers, and the police are entitled to void bookings made with errors or rewritten details right at the door. The administration regularly blocks the bots and purges those reservations.

How Krepko helps

We work with the booking portals across all provinces every day and know the rhythm of each one. What we do for you:

• We get the cita previa for your procedure: Extranjería, police, DGT, the tax office, ayuntamiento - legally, on your details, without buying slots.
• We prepare the complete set for the appointment: forms, fees, translations - so the visit does not end with the phrase "falta un documento".
• Where possible, we file online with an electronic certificate - no visit at all.
• Legally significant steps are performed by licensed specialists - lawyers, gestores, sworn translators.

See the Life in Spain service page - and leave a request - the review is free if your appointment is urgent: we will give you a realistic timeframe and take the process over.

Sources

• The Extranjería cita previa portal (Sede electronica de Administraciones Publicas)
• Sede electronica DGT - booking and online services
• Agencia Tributaria - cita previa and the electronic office