In my case it would be "family member of an EU citizen" card renewal. Does this complicate things or just empadronamiento/fingerprints/payment and it's done?

Sorry not sure as I have never done that procedure.

I have been checking offices near to me and you really do just have to keep checking. Yesterday only office showing any appointments was Ronda and they were for this month I am looking for late Feb and Ronda is a long way from me. Today They are showing appointments at Málaga up to January , Torremolinos and Fuengirola up to early Feb. I just checked our local office Velez Malaga and they now show one appointment for tomorrow which has just appeared from nowhere must be a cancellation that has been reposted. I think my plan will be if one comes up at suitable date at Málaga or Fuengirola I will book it and keep looking for any that come up at Velez if they do I can book it and cancel the other one.

Guidelines here

https://spanishnewstoday.com/how_to_...0251011-a.html

Just a couple of things I noticed in that advice.
About getting appointments - You couldn't say that Benidorm does not have a large expat population! But you can do it at the police station there.
The appts in Benidorm do not seem to be offered months in advance. In my case it was a day in advance!

Also it says a passport sized photo. This is correct if it means Spanish passport photo. The UK passport size I beieve is 45 x 35mm. The required size for the TIE is smaller, 32mm x 26mm.

John

I think you'l find that you will not be able to book another appointment without first cancelling the one you have.

I looked at this when I got my appointment in Alicante but over 2 months after my TIE expiry. The next day (after MANY hours of virtually continuous trying) I managed to got an appointment for 'er indoors in Orihuela, and only about 3 weeks away, so I carried on searching thinking I might be able to bring mine forward and eventually another Orihuela appointment did pop up but I couldn't book it without cancelling Alicante however to do that meant abandoning the Orihuela appointment to do the cancellation and then coming back but with no guarantee that Orihuela would still be available without another whole day trying I decided to let things be.

Yes I guess that will be the case and of course there is always a risk you could cancel the booked appointment to find the other appointment is no longer available. I have been checking daily and our local office seems to add the odd day every few days. Currently they are showing an appointment available for exactly a week before my TIE expires. So I am hopeful that a suitable one will become available in the next week or so . My TIE expires 19 February so if one comes up for 19th or after I will take it. There are other options such as main Málaga Police Station or even Fuengirola or Benalmadena they are options as I can get there but I prefer the local Police Station as much easier. I am fairly confident a suitable appointment will come up in next week or so🤞

I have managed to get an appointment at our local office for the day my TIE runs out. So constant checking worked out

Hmmm.

A TIE is valid until midnight on its day of expity, if that's the day you have booked the appointment then I'm afraid you'll very likely find they will turn you away.
It's not at the operators discretion as the system has been tweaked to preclude premature renewal, even by a few hours.

This has been reported by a number of people who tried the same. One or two were lucky as the office gave them a new appointment for the next day.but there is no guarantee of that.

Ok I will leave it for now and check for one the day after and cancel this one and change it . I thought it would be ok on the day it runs out

I have cancelled that appointment as having an appointment seems to block you from looking for appointments for that task. Anyway all canceled and confirmed i will keep checking for one the day or so after. Thanks for info as better to ensure the old card has expired .

We managed to get our TIE appointment in Barcelona only with automatic monitoring :\

"automatic monitoring"?

I am guessing that is paying someone to get the appointment for you ?

Just checked and now got an appointment for day after my card actually expires so all good now