https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/mandate/service-declaration/service-standards.html
The aforementioned link states the service standard to be 12 months. Moving forward with more digitalization I would expect it to be cut down , and come below the current service standard. The transistion from paper based pr to Express entry is one such example. The problem is their infrastructure is not built to handle such huge volumes and needs some extra $ for upgrading things.
Perhaps you overlook the extent to which my posts are based on how things work, and my post (that you quote) is specifically about
*EXPECTATIONS* . . . which of course derive from realistic observations about how things work, not myopic or selective blinder cherry-picking.
Sorry . . . but if your
EXPECTATIONS are based on the "
service standard," for which it appears that more than one-in-three applications was NOT MET even in the period 2019-2020 (as reported on the webpage you link), BEFORE processing citizenship applications slowed to barely a crawl in the wake of the global pandemic, in contrast to the more current report that suggests nearly HALF of "complete" applications have been taking MORE than 27 months, those EXPECTATIONS are not fact based. As I noted, "
in terms of expectations" the news is NOT good.
It probably makes sense to anticipate that things will not only improve generally, as they most certainly should, and recognize it is, as I noted, feasible that your citizenship application could be finalized within the year. Which warrants not only hoping but being prepared for things to proceed this year, including monitoring communications.
But again, "
in terms of expectations" based on recent IRCC reporting about citizenship application processing timelines, the news is not good . . . and you could indeed be spending the next Provincial and Federal elections on the sidelines, and swearing (or affirming) allegiance to a king when the time comes for taking the oath. Make no mistake: there is NO guarantee you will take the oath by 2023, let alone this year.
As for whether your personal application will be processed among those sailing through smoothly and as quickly as those processed faster, here too you can focus on a "
glass half full" approach, but this topic, your topic, is about an application that starts with a wrinkle and takes a twist, and maybe efforts to tweak things like address will not have any deleterious impact on the timeline, but again "
in terms of expectations" it is no secret that
bureaucracy is what bureaucracy does, and that includes NOT handling wrinkles well . . . which you seem to be rather aware of.
Some forum participants tend to characterize the difference between those applications processed much faster than others, and those much slower than others, as based on chance, comparable to the spin of a roulette wheel. But the reality is that chance plays but a small role and how things go depends way, way more on the details, and whether this or that detail derails the progress of the application . . . any deviation in the process typically means the application goes into yet another queue where it waits. You note, for example, the difference between how long it should take to mail a certificate and how long it currently actually does . . . that is not about it actually taking any longer to complete that task, but about how long that application sits in a queue waiting for the task to be done. That's the pattern for just about every step in the process, so any sidestep, any additional task, does not merely add how much time it takes to do that task, it adds however long the queue is for someone to pick up the application to do that task.
So what happens when an application is transferred from one local office to another? Where in the queue does that application go in the new local office? Clue: it is not based on how long the application has been in process to that point.
Most steps in the process, most tasks, take just parts of an hour, and all the steps combined for the vast majority of qualified applicants probably adds up to no more than a few hours . . . the processing times are about how long applications sit in queue, first this queue and then that queue, adding up. It takes months just to open applications, for example, months sitting in a queue. So, if something adds a quarter-hour task to the process, it adds however long the queue is for that to be done, and some of those can be exceedingly long queues . . . perhaps what some might describe as
insanely long queues.
Nothing wrong, nothing at all wrong, in hoping this proceeds and gets done in the coming months, within the year. As that could indeed be how it goes. But, again, "
in terms of expectations," the news is NOT good. Sorry. With sympathy.
My application doesn't fit the criteria of 'non-routine' as defined by IRCC (
https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=1169&top=5) and changes in address are perhaps not uncommon as well. The early processing ( till background check) was well within time but my paper application got caught in the bottle neck of test invites when it came to Ottawa office. Ottawa office is one of the slowest if not the slowest interms of processing. Mailing a citizenship certificate is taking 3-4 months and thats usually 1-3 days job for GTA offices. The whole idea is to move my file away from Ottawa office. Another update I have today after talking to an agent over phone is that my online application from April 2021 is with Niagara Falls office. It's perhaps on hold in their systems awaiting a decision on my paper application file stuck in Ottawa. The only way to see some movement then is when my paper application goes on hold. I've raised a webform for this 43 days back and have sent follow up webform 10 days back and haven't received a response thus far. I'm just hoping that one affirmative response would put things back on track, hopefully GTA or Niagara Falls offices dont get clogged by then. Most of the delays in the processing of IRCC inventory are with paper based applications from 2020 and the years before. The ones that applied in 2021 both in paper and online have moved very well atleast upto the last election with exception of very few regional offices like Ottawa. I wish IRCC introduces something like premium processing for naturalization. It's mutually beneficial but perhaps will remain wishful thinking for the foreseeable future, as it gets lost in egalitarian rhetoric.
