Good news for boat builders...

Since the entire population of Spain was 48.37 million as at the end of 2023, that would mean more than half of the existing population.

Yes I have done the same sums - which IMO makes it very hard to believe - and don't ask me where they would all live!

The point is that the birth rate in Spain is now so low that the current population is falling. By 2050, millions will have died and not be replaced by new births. It does seem extreme, but it has been stated by quite a few reliable sources including the Bank of Spain.

Giving a path to regularisation of status for those already residing in Spain for some time is something to be applauded, in my opinion.

I expect the Spanish authorities are well aware of Portugal's various alterations back in 2017 & onwards (including just such an amnesty) and hope they took enough notice of the subsequent developments to be able to anticipate the volume of applications they'll receive and where they need to boost resources to avoid the immigration service (or whoever else is to be charged with the administration) being brought to a standstill. Unfortunately, that side of things didn't go so well here, with an already over-stretched service being deluged with an impossible workload and many people besides those newly authorised to apply for residence being affected by not being able to get appointments for initial permit issuance, renewals etc

A change in policy and/or working practices results in additional workloads? Who knew?

They seem to have given themselves more time for preparation, at least. Obviously you can't just whistle up the necessary additional staff with the appropriate capabilities and training from one week to the next.

Lets see what happens at the tail end of next year. As we and many, many thousands will flock to renew the TIE for a permanent one.
It was manic when we first applied, our solicitor reckoned she had hundreds on her books waiting for the first appointment (many of them were people who didnt bother and had been here for years already).

We did the wife's initial TIE between lock downs just after TIE came out for British. This was at Malaga office. I had to sort it all out myself for her with help on here. To be honest yes it was very busy but the police dealt with it without any issues. After sorting the wife's out a couple of months later I changed my green residencia for TIE again busy but well dealt with. I'm hoping it works as well when we need to renew them.

Spain has done regularisations before, they know how to deal with them. If anything dealing with Britons after Brexit was a kind of regularisation...

The system fell completely to pieces in Alicante in 2020.
There were huge delays in getting appointments and even just filling the paperwork for residency took nearly four weeks.
I was panicking because I couldn't exchange my driving licence until we were resident.
We got the confirmation note in mid december and I was lucky that our solicitor knew someone who took my licence in and did the exchange. The only easy thing was the medical at IMED Benidorm.
From memory our first appointment for the TIE was in April 2021 at the foreigners office and we picked up the TIE in July from the other place. There must have been at least a thousand people in the queue when we went down.

Same for us, Bob. We changed our green residency certificates (which were permanent ones) for permanent TIEs around the same time as you. We couldn't get appointments at our nearest Extranjeria office in Torre del Mar but there was no problem getting one at the main provincial Comisaria de Policia Nacional in MÃ laga, and that was only a bus trip away. In fact it was a good excuse to have a trip out because we were only supposed to travel within our own municipality at that time and it counted as an essential journey. Our appointment times were 45 minutes apart but the police officer on duty at the entrance kindly let my husband in 45 minutes early so we didn't have to hang around longer than necessary. No lawyers or gestors were involved. I know we have to renew them after 10 years, can't believe nearly half that time has passed already.

When we did ours at Malaga there was a really efficient young female police officer , she was helpful and ensured no one jumped the queue. Maybe next year when we need to renew ours Velez Malaga will be available if not as you say day in Malaga by bus is fine.

Interesting read throughout, thanks.