Spain is notorious for its difficult bureaucratic systems, but thankfully, having a digital certificate can save you a lot of hassle and allow you to complete many processes online, without having to go in person to the various offices and agencies.

The digital certificate can be used for a whole range of processes with various Spanish institutions, including the Hacienda (Tax Office), DGT (Traffic Office), regional health system, INSS social security, your bank, or your Ayuntamiento (Town Hall).

While you may have it on your computer already, it’s useful to know that you can download it to your phone too, in order to undertake administrative processes on the go.

You must have applied and been granted your digital certificate before you install it on your phone. Find out how to do that here.

You will need your digital certificate file in order to install it onto your phone, which should have the extensions .pfx, .p12, .cer or .crt. These will be compatible with both iPhones and Android. You will also need the PIN or password associated with your digital certificate.

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Installing the digital certificate on Android

Firstly, you will need to send your original certificate file to your phone. You can do this by sending yourself an email. You can also choose to send it via WhatsApp or another messaging app.

Secondly, you will need to save your digital certificate to your mobile files. To do this, open your smartphone’s file manager and find where you want to save the file.

Click on the file to run it and introduce the key or PIN with which it was encrypted.

If you sent the certificate via WhatsApp, you only have to click on it once it has been downloaded within the conversation – you will not need a file manager.

You can consult all your data and procedures from your mobile via the app Mi Carpeta Ciudadana from the Spanish government.

Once you have installed the digital certificate on your Android phone, you can choose when you want to run it, when you need to sign for a particular service. For example, you can use it with the miDGT app.

READ ALSO: How you can now pay traffic fines in Spain from your phone

Installing the digital certificate on iPhone

Installing your certificate on your iPhone has a few extra steps, but you will still need the same file types as above.

Firstly, send your digital certificate file to your iPhone. You can use iCloud or simply save it to your files. You can also send it as an attachment in an email or through messaging applications.

Save the digital certificate to your iPhone storage. If you used iCloud this is not necessary. To do this, open ‘Files’ on your iPhone and navigate to where you saved the digital certificate. Click on the certificate and choose where to install it.

Next, go to iOS settings. You will see a ‘Profile downloaded’ message appear at the top, just below your account information.

Click Install, enter your iPhone’s lock code and, if necessary, enter the PIN or password associated with your certificate.

Once installed, it will appear as a ‘Profile’ in the general options of the settings, at the bottom of the entire menu.

When everything is complete, you will be able to confirm your identity on official websites and government applications that require it.