Question:
One of my friends applied for Citizenship in Oct, 2017 under 3/5 rule--> Got AOR in November --> IP on Dec 07 --> Received a letter yesterday from Sydney dated Dec 18 saying preliminary review on his file is complete & that his file has been sent to Program Support Unit for final review.
Does anybody know what all this is about and how his application might/would be delayed as a result?
Any use applying for GCMS notes?
He travels once a year to US for a week or conferences and applied for a name change in the application. Could that have triggered it? GCMS worthy enough?
Time for the applicant to exercise some patience. (Note exception discussed below.)
A client's copy of the GCMS citizenship application file is NOT likely to reveal why there was a referral to the Program Support Unit.
Why this has been issued by CPC Sydney (as opposed to a local office) is one among a number of questions which come to mind.
As noted by others, perhaps it is simply the name-chance which triggered this, in which case so long as the name-change meets requirements that should be resolved without much delay.
But the why is mostly an unknown, at least for now.
In particular, whether there is a serious issue, something problematic, is NOT clear. There have been few reports of this (or a similar) procedure . . . most probably going back to 2013, at least 2014, when large numbers of RQ'd applications were being referred to a centralized processing unit.
BUT, BUT, the applicant himself or herself is not entirely in the dark. The applicant knows the case. If there is some reason to be concerned, some potentially problematic issue, the applicant almost certainly has at least some idea what that is, what it is about. IRCC does not manufacture problems. If there is a real problem, it is a problem that exists in the facts and circumstances of the case, and the applicant knows what the facts and circumstances are . . . including historical matters, such as whether the applicant has used a consultant in the past who was not an authorized representative.
As I initially noted, this is probably a point in time during which the applicant should exercise some patience, a time to wait and see how this goes, to wait to learn what happens next.
BUT if the applicant knows of something potentially problematic about the facts or circumstances in the case, or the applicant's history, this may be the time to at least obtain a consultation with a reputable, licensed lawyer.