One Office Won't Video-Check Your TIE for a Digital Certificate. Another Does It for €3.40

Our read: on the Costa, a refused video check can mean trying another certificate issuer under the same national framework. A digital certificate is a file that identifies you and signs for you on Spanish government websites.

This is for adults without a working certificate who hold an NIE — foreigner identification number and a valid TIE — residence card.

The Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre — national mint, or FNMT, identifies applicants by video for its certificate, at €2.99 plus tax. Its page limits that route to a valid DNI — Spanish national identity card, and adds that other documents will be allowed in future. The Agencia de Tecnología y Certificación Electrónica — Technology and Electronic Certification Agency, ACCV, is Valencia's public issuer. It offers adults with an NIE and a valid TIE video identification for €3.40.

One issuer's no is not Spain's no. A digital certificate is a regulated product with several licensed issuers inside one legal framework, each with its own identity rules. "DNI only" is FNMT's rule for FNMT's video route. FNMT's in-person route still stands, on its own terms. ACCV issues under the same national framework from Valencia, and neither its page nor its certification policy asks you to live there.

Cl@ve, Spain's public-service login system, temporarily limits video-identification registration to Spanish citizens with a valid DNI. Its separate registration video-call page says the service is temporarily deactivated. The habit worth keeping: when an official page says no, ask whose rule it is and who else issues the same thing.

ACCV's identification manual admits only the TIE designs it pictures (2003, 2010, 2011 and 2020), so check your card against those pictures before paying. A Spanish driving licence showing the NIE is on both of ACCV's lists. Foreign passport: ACCV's web page lists it, its manual does not. Ask ACCV before paying.

On accv.es the page is Certificado de ciudadano por vídeo identificación — citizen certificate by video identification. ACCV is based in Burjassot, Valencia.

Three separate clocks. The application expires after seven calendar days, review included, with no extension. The generation code expires after 15 calendar days. The certificate lasts three years. Approval brings the generation code. The certificate exists only once you generate it on a computer.

ACCV's FAQ says an expired generation code or a download error means paying again. For stalled generation, its manual says to retry in another browser.

Tráfico — Spain's traffic authority lists, on its Cl@ve page, the issuers that offer video identification: ACCV, Bewor Tech, Firmaprofesional, FNMT-CERES and Uanataca. We checked ACCV's document rules only. What the other three accept or charge, we cannot say. The list of admitted certificates at Seguridad Social — Social Security, dated May 2026, names ACCV's citizen software certificate and reserves restrictions by procedure.

The page at Hacienda — Spain's tax agency does not name ACCV. Its rule admits certificates accepted across the state administration, and ACCV's citizen certificate is on Spain's official trust list. We have not tested a Hacienda login with one, nor a Tráfico login.

The immigration portal (Mercurio), the Junta de Andalucía — Andalucía's regional government and Málaga city hall each publish a general rule. None of the three names ACCV, and we have tested none. We did not check other town halls. Look at a portal's accepted-certificates page before relying on it.

So the list that answers FNMT's dead end sits on a Tráfico page about Cl@ve. And FNMT's own line is worth re-reading as written: other documents will be allowed in future.

FNMT's free route still exists, on FNMT's rules. You show your identity at an office. Tax agency, Seguridad Social and other offices need a cita previa — prior appointment. Correos — Spain's postal service does not do it. A third person can go for you only if a notary legitimises your signature on the contract, and a power of attorney does not replace that. Our digital-certificate guide covers that route.

Fuengirola town hall's certificate desk, which works to FNMT's requirements, publishes walk-in turns 09:00 to 11:00 and online appointments 11:00 to 14:00, with different hours in summer and during the Feria — local fair. Feria hours ran to 12 October, so ordinary hours are expected today, though no notice confirms it. Check the town hall's page before you go.

If this certificate is one of several admin threads you are carrying, our Navigator service helps before the recording and after it: which document to hold up, what the camera has to see, the computer setup, then generating, the backup copy and the first login. Never during the recording, and Navigator never holds the certificate. €30 an hour, in prepaid blocks.

vídeo identificación — video identification

código de generación — generation code

ACCV offers an adult with an NIE and a valid TIE video identification for €3.40. Seven calendar days is when the application expires, so treat it as a deadline. FNMT's free in-person route remains, on FNMT's document and appointment terms. When one issuer says no, ask who else issues the same thing.

Confirmed October 2026

Go deeper: our digital-certificate guide.

See you on the paseo — A. and the WaypointSur team, alone in frame, card in hand.