Interacting with the public administration, especially when it’s necessary to deal with officials in person, request appointments at the corresponding public offices, and physically go to public places, can often be frustrating, inefficient in terms of time and procedures, and extremely inconvenient, especially for those living in large cities who can’t dedicate hours or whole days to bureaucratic procedures that could be easily done through technological tools.
The use of a «Digital Certificate» (also known as «Electronic Certificate» or «Digital Signature») is extremely useful in Spain, as the Spanish public administration allows virtually any type of procedure to be carried out completely electronically and instantly at any level (municipal, regional, autonomous, or national). BarcelonaGlobalService strongly recommends its clients to activate and install this tool, as it will be highly useful in the future for the following procedures (and many more):
- Generating and downloading certificates from the electronic headquarters of the Social Security that will later be necessary to justify, at a National Police station, the issuance of a «Certificate of Registration of European Union Citizen.»
- Electronically requesting the registration of one’s residence, known as «empadronamiento,» in their respective municipality.
- Obtaining the NUSS, the «Social Security Number.» (Numero de Seguridad Social)
- Registering for a Tax Identification Number (NIF) in Spain, known as «alta de autónomo.»
- Submitting any type of tax declarations, income statements, fine payments.
- Carrying out online procedures with the DGT (General Directorate of Traffic).
- Managing procedures with the SEPE (Public Employment Service).
The «Digital Certificate» is used in all member states of the European Union. For example, the equivalent in France is issued by «Imprimerie Nationale,» «Agence Nationale des Titres Sécurisés,» and «Le Group La Poste»; in Italy, it is known as «SPID» and can be issued by «Poste Italiane S.p.A.,» «Aruba,» «Infocert»; in Germany, by «Deutsche Post AG,» «1&1 De-Mail GmBH,» «Deutsche Telekom AG,» «D-Trust GmBH,» among others.
In Spain, there are also many authorized entities to issue a «Digital Certificate,» including FNMT (National Mint and Stamp Factory – Royal Spanish Mint), AC Camerfirma S.A., Consorci Administració Oberta de Catalunya – CAOC, ANF AUTORIDAD DE CERTIFICACIÓN ASOCIACIÓN ANF AC, and many more.
In addition to accessing and modifying personal data on the aforementioned websites, the digital certificate also enables the digital signing of documents from the public administration, submission of reports, documents, appeals, tax and fee payments at both the local and national levels. Among its various applications, it allows for the management of any administrative procedure related to fines and penalties, administrative appeals, participation in bidding processes, unemployment benefits, social security benefits, submission of appeals and requests for payment deferrals in sanctioning proceedings by the Tax Agency. Furthermore, the digital certificate can be used to access platforms that connect with the public administration, allowing for the certified submission of any type of communication and receiving immediate proof of receipt (as well as the ability to track the administrative process related to the communication). This provides legal validity to the sent communication, as if it were a registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt (or «Burofax») or the Italian PEC (Certified Electronic Mail). BarcelonaGlobalService constantly uses this tool to carry out many procedures and highly recommends its clients to use this valuable system, which allows for the convenient remote completion of numerous procedures that would otherwise require scheduling appointments (Cita previa), personal visits to public offices, long waits, and receiving confirmations and paper documents, further slowing down the process.
The process of verification, activation, and installation of a «Digital Certificate» in Spain involves several stages, and an essential requirement is to possess a Spanish NIE or DNI (Spanish identity document):
- Registering the recently obtained NIE or DNI in the database of the AEAT (Tax Agency) to make the document available in the central tax archive, by submitting a «Modelo 030» (BarcelonaGlobalService can submit the «Modelo 030» within minutes to register your Spanish NIE or DNI).
- Generating an activation code.
- Scheduling an appointment («Cita previa») at the nearest office of the AEAT (Tax Agency).
- Personal verification of one’s identity before an official from the Tax Agency using the NIE, identity document, and activation code.
- Obtaining the Digital Certificate from the download platform and subsequent installation.
The above-described process requires in-person verification of one’s identity at an office of the Tax Agency. However, BarcelonaGlobalService is accredited as an OVP (Office of Face-to-Face Verification) with ANF (Certification Authority), which allows us to activate and issue digital certificates without the client having to go to a Tax Agency office.
Contact BarcelonaGlobalService at francesco@barcelonaglobalservice.com for more information. (Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Barcelonaglobalservice).
Hi, is there any chance to activate a «Certificado Digital» without my physical presence (I already have a white NIE)? many thanks
Dear Magda,
If you already have a Spanish NIE (Either a «Certificado de no residente» or a «Certificado de registro de ciudadano de la Unión Europea», as well as a TIE card or a Spanish national ID) you can certainly proceed to obtain the «Certificado Digital».
For the activation of this tool it is necessary, as you know, to go to the Spanish Tax Agency in person, with an appointment, or to a Spanish consulate.
In our case, we can activate the Certificado Digital 100% remotely, without the need for the Client to appear in person at a public office (Spanish Tax Agency or Consulate) and without the use of original special notarial powers of attorney thanks to the fact that we are authorized and accredited by the ANF AC, a Spanish national certification authority, the process would entail a maximum waiting time of approximately 48 working hours for the request to be validated by the ANF AC (Autoridad de Certificación): in addition to some personal data of the client, we would need some of his scanned documents and some personal data, as well as some forms, which we would send by email, and which he would then have to send back to us signed.
The Certificado Digital issued by ANF can be valid for 1 year or 2 years.
In either case, it would first be necessary to register the Client’s NIE (in many cases this is necessary) in the central archive of the AEAT (Agencia Tributaria) by submitting the model 030 in order to make it available in the database of the Spanish administration, which of course we would do in any case, before proceeding (this operation will most probably have to be carried out if the NIE has never been used to interface with the tax administration). The submission of Form 030 is done instantly, in a matter of minutes, before proceeding with the rest of the telematic procedure. Please email me to francesco@barcelonaglobalservice.com for more details. Regards,