SPANISH nationals who need to renew their DNI or national identity cards are having to wait an average of 40 days – or up to two months in some parts of the country, the government has admitted.
A card held by everyone with Spanish citizenship, including foreigners who have opted for nationality, the DNI also serves as a passport and is accepted for entry into most countries.
But anyone whose DNI is about to expire should try to book an appointment as far in advance as possible, given that the National Police stations which handle identity documents are taking up to six weeks to fit people in.
Residents in La Rioja have to wait the longest of all Spain's autonomous regions – 47.91 days – followed by those in Navarra, at 47.22 days.
Those living in the Basque Country typically wait 46.39 days for an appointment, and those in Valencia and Catalunya, 44.6 days.
Other regions with waiting lists longer than the 40-day average are Castilla-La Mancha (43.96 days) and Andalucía (43.28 days).
Some individual provinces within the 17 regions leave DNI card-holders in the queue for far longer.
Ávila (Castilla y León) currently has a delay of 59.2 days, ahead of Huelva (Andalucía) and Cuenca (Castilla-La Mancha) at 58.3 and 58.2 respectively, Cádiz (Andalucía) at 57.8 days and Salamanca (Castilla y León) at 56.3 days.
The quickest province for renewing a DNI in is Ourense (Galicia) at just 19.3 days.
Spain's government admitted these long delays were indeed the case in response to probing by socialist MP Miguel Ángel Heredia, who condemned the 'total gridlock' in DNI and Spanish passport offices and the 'inability' of interior minister Juan Ignacio Zoido to resolve the problem.
“The only thing he has done to 'help' in the last six years is to cut down on staff and financial resources,” Heredia complained.
Heredia says he has a list of Parliamentary initiatives up his sleeve to push the government for explanations about the long delays and why so many employees were made redundant in DNI and passport offices when they in fact needed more, not fewer, staff members.
