ALTERNATIVE_ID_COUNTRY

The country of the alternative identifier is missing (alternative_id.country_code). It is required except for the PASSPORT and NOT_REGISTERED types, which are taken as Spanish when it is omitted.

Category: Customers


HTTP status	`422` Unprocessable Content
Retry	After fixing the cause

When it happens

An alternative_id has no country_code, and its type needs one. Only PASSPORT and NOT_REGISTERED can omit it: without it they are taken as Spanish (ES). error.details names the field where it was sent: alternative_id.country_code on a customer, recipient.alternative_id.country_code on an invoice recipient.

How to fix it

Send country_code inside alternative_id: the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the country that issued the document, such as DE for a German VAT number. It is not taken from the address.

Retry

Not as is: the same request fails the same way. Fix the cause described above, then send the request again, under a new Idempotency-Key if the body changed.

Returned by

The operations where this code is most likely. The list is not exhaustive.

Rules that cite this code

CNT-021 A recipient without a Spanish NIF is identified by an alternative id

Example response

When this error occurs, the API answers 422 Unprocessable Content with a JSON body of this shape:

{
  "type": "https://docs.beel.es/errors/ALTERNATIVE_ID_COUNTRY_REQUIRED",
  "title": "ALTERNATIVE_ID_COUNTRY_REQUIRED",
  "detail": "The country of the alternative identifier is missing (alternative_id.country_code). It is required except for the PASSPORT and NOT_REGISTERED types, which are taken as Spanish when it is omitted.",
  "instance": "/v1/<resource>",
  "errors": [],
  "success": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "ALTERNATIVE_ID_COUNTRY_REQUIRED",
    "message": "The country of the alternative identifier is missing (alternative_id.country_code). It is required except for the PASSPORT and NOT_REGISTERED types, which are taken as Spanish when it is omitted.",
    "details": {}
  },
  "meta": {
    "timestamp": "2026-05-21T10:00:00Z",
    "request_id": "4bf92f3577b34da6a3ce929d0e0e4736"
  }
}

The type URI is stable and always resolves to this page.

Message

The country of the alternative identifier is missing (alternative_id.country_code). It is required except for the PASSPORT and NOT_REGISTERED types, which are taken as Spanish when it is omitted.

Falta el país del identificador alternativo (alternative_id.country_code). Es obligatorio salvo para los tipos PASSPORT y NOT_REGISTERED, que sin país se toman como de España.

Falta el país del document identificatiu alternatiu (alternative_id.country_code). És obligatori llevat dels tipus PASSPORT i NOT_REGISTERED, que sense país es prenen com a espanyols.

Send the request with Accept-Language: <es|en|ca> to receive the message in your preferred language.