What is it? A digital certificate is an electronic document that serves to legally prove a person's identity on the Internet. Currently, most Spanish institutions offer their services online, making it an essential tool in today's society.

---

 

As it is a digital identification document, issued and authenticated by an official body, its use replaces the handwritten signature with a digital one, allowing us to carry out procedures securely with the Public Administration and Private Entities through the Internet, avoiding unnecessary travel and waiting.

Which certificate should I issue and what are they for?

There are different certificates that can be issued, depending on whether you are a:

• PHYSICAL PERSON: any Spanish or foreign citizen, of legal age or emancipated minor who is in possession of their DNI or NIE, may request and obtain their digital certificate free of charge to sign and verify their identity securely on the Internet. The validity period is 4 years. This certificate will allow you to identify yourself telematically and sign or encrypt electronic documents.

Uses:

• Filing and payment of taxes
• Filing of appeals and claims
• Filling in population and housing census data
• Consultation and registration in the municipal census
• Consultation of traffic fines
• Consultation and procedures for subsidy applications
• Consultation of polling station assignments
• Communicated actions
• Electronic signature of official documents and forms

 

• REPRESENTATIVE: there are three different types:

 

• Sole and joint administrator: the first, as its name suggests, will be requested when there is only one administrator in the company. The second occurs when, there being more than one administrator, they are not joint (mancomunados), so any of them can make decisions on their own, without needing the approval of the rest of the administrators.

This certificate can be obtained by corporations (SA) and limited companies (SL), provided that the representative of the company is a sole or joint administrator, has their representation powers registered in the Mercantile Registry and these have not been revoked. When requesting this certificate, a fee of 24 euros must be paid for its issuance. The validity period is 2 years.

• Legal entity: this certificate is mainly reserved for companies that have another company as their sole/joint administrator. However, there is a wide range of cases depending on the initial letter of the entity's NIF that can request this type of certificate, among others:

• • A and B: Corporations and Limited Companies (without being a Sole/Joint Administrator).
  • G: Associations.
  • J: Civil Societies.

• Entity without legal personality: Depending on the initial letter of the entity's NIF, they can request this type of certificate, among others:

• • H: Homeowners' Associations.
  • E: Communities of Goods (Comunidades de Bienes).

Uses:

• Speed up and reduce the cost of procedures with the Public Administration.
• Increase the company's productivity and competitiveness.
• Simplification and automation of document management.
• Reduction of errors by eliminating manual procedures.
• Favoring the elimination of printed documents.
• Compliance with legal obligations.

 

• PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: regulates the identification systems of the Public Administrations, as well as those of the personnel in their service.

 

• COMPONENT: electronic certificates for the identification of servers or computer applications. Within this category are SSL server certificates, wildcard certificates, and entity seal certificates.

How to obtain it?

To obtain any of the existing modalities of digital certificate, it is necessary to use the Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox browser. Once the browser is chosen, you must configure it so that it meets the requirements demanded by the National Currency and Stamp Factory (hereinafter FNMT). To do this, you can go to the FNMT website, where you will find manuals for the correct configuration of the chosen browser.

IMPORTANT: the same computer must be used for both requesting the certificate and downloading it.

Once the browser is configured, the first thing will be to go to the FNMT website, and enter the CERES section. There we access the Certificates tab, where you will find the different certificate options that can be issued. In this article, we will focus on the most common digital certificates, the Physical Person one and the Representative (Sole/Joint Administrator) one.

Physical Person Certificate: there are three ways to issue it, through the computer/software certificate, through the Android App/Android certificate, and through an electronic DNI/certificate with DNIe.

As an example, if you want the certificate through the computer or software certificate, you must follow these steps:

• Access through the CERES section to: Physical Person – Obtain Software Certificate - Request Certificate, and fill in the personal information, indicate an email address and accept the conditions.
• A code will arrive at the indicated email, which must be taken along with the DNI to a registry office (AEAT or from the CC.AA.), in order to be registered and collect a new code. Do not forget that depending on the office you go to, it will be necessary to request an appointment.
• Access through the CERES section to: Download Certificate. Once the information is completed and the terms accepted, the digital certificate will be downloaded to our computer.

Representative Certificate - Sole/Joint Administrator: there are three ways to request it: through an FNMT Physical Person certificate, through a DNIe, or without a certificate.

In case the Administrator has a Physical Person certificate, the following steps must be followed:

• Access through the CERES section to: Representative Certificate – Sole or Joint Administrator - Request Certificate – Application with FNMT physical person certificate. A pop-up window will automatically be displayed in which the Administrator's physical person electronic certificate must be selected.
• The personal information of the Administrator and the represented entity must be filled in, as well as an email address indicated and the conditions accepted.
• A code will arrive at the indicated email, which we must indicate in the Download certificate section, also filling in information relating to the Administrator and the represented entity.
• Finally, the fee of 24 euros must be paid in order to obtain the certificate download.

In case of not having an FNMT electronic certificate or DNIe, you must choose the Application without certificate option. The steps are the same, to which must be added the procedure of going to a registry office (AEAT or the CC.AA.) between step three and four.

If you are a Nomaspapel client and have any doubts when issuing the certificate, do not hesitate to contact us. We also offer the option to carry out these procedures for you. For more information about our telematic Certificate Issuance service, you can consult us at: https://www.nomaspapel.es/es/contactar