TIE appointment: how to actually get a slot

Where to book

The TIE fingerprint appointment is booked through the Spanish government’s electronic office, under Policía Nacional – Toma de huellas. You choose your province, the procedure and an office. Booking is free, and none of the sites that charge to “get you” an appointment has access to anything you do not have yourself.

Why there are never any slots

Appointments are released in batches and disappear within minutes. In large provinces — Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante, Málaga — the calendar can stay empty for weeks, and “no appointments available” does not mean the system is broken: it means that morning’s batch is already gone.

What actually works

1. Try first thing in the morning. Batches are usually released early on weekdays. A Tuesday at 8:00 is worth more than a Sunday afternoon.
2. Check every office in your province, not just the one in your city. The appointment is provincial: you can go to the comisaría in the next town if it has space.
3. Keep trying for several days. It is not luck on one attempt, it is persistence over ten.
4. Do not pay for an appointment. The sites reselling them use the same public forms. On top of charging you, they collect your personal data.

If your authorisation expires before the appointment

If your residence decision has a deadline and you cannot get an appointment within it, keep evidence of your attempts: dated screenshots of the “no appointments” message. That is what you present if the delay has to be justified, and what a lawyer will ask for if it goes to appeal.

And when you finally get one

Prepare the folder in advance: form EX-17, the 26 × 32 mm photograph, the tasa 790 012 already paid, and your passport with a photocopy. The full list is in what to take to the appointment. Losing a slot over one forgotten paper means starting again from the top of this article.