Printing ID photos in Madrid
Madrid hands out more TIE fingerprint appointments a day than anywhere else in Spain, and it is also the easiest place to get the sheet printed two streets from the police station.
Where to print in Madrid
In the locutorios of Lavapiés, Usera and Tetuán the 10 × 15 sheet costs 0.20–0.40 € and there is almost never a queue; these are the districts where most immigration paperwork gets done, and the staff there know what an ID photo is. If you would rather use a chain, Fotoprix and the photo counters at Carrefour and El Corte Inglés print the same day.
Your options in Madrid
- Locutorios and neighbourhood copy shops — Lavapiés, Usera, Tetuán, Cuatro Caminos. Between 0.20 € and 0.60 € a sheet, almost always while you wait. A locutorio is a small shop for calls, copies and paperwork; they are everywhere and they are the cheapest option.
- Chains — Fotoprix, Carrefour, El Corte Inglés, Alcampo. Fixed price and long opening hours; a little dearer than the locutorio round the corner.
- At home — photo paper and 100 % scale. Plain paper will not do: the ink bleeds and grey comes out grey.
The phrase to say at the counter
This is the one point where all the earlier work falls apart, and it depends on what you ask for rather than on the shop. Say it in Spanish:
«Imprimir a tamaño real, al 100 %, sin ajustar a la hoja y sin bordes automáticos.»
“Print at actual size, 100 %, without fitting to the page and without automatic borderless.”
When the machine prints “borderless” it stretches the image by 2–3 % and the photos stop measuring 26 × 32 mm. With that much drift the photo no longer meets Real Decreto 1553/2005, and at the police station it shows at a glance with a ruler.
What you take to be printed
A 10 × 15 cm sheet with eleven photos already laid out and cut marks in the margins: eight at 26 × 32 mm, the official size, and three at 30 × 40 mm in case your particular office asks for the other one. Printing it costs cents and leaves you spare copies for several procedures — for the TIE fingerprint appointment bring two or three.
Make the photo before you go
Upload a phone photo and we hand back the sheet, ready to print in Madrid.
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