Barsarah: We don't have OWP yet, but here's my understanding from following the threads on here:
1. The CIC estimates 4 months. Someone else posted a more recent update that suggested the current wait time for OWP is 111 days. From what I've read, the methodology for CIC estimates is not known. My sense is that it isn't an average, nor a maximum (some people seem to get OWP later). My best guess is that it means that somewhere around 75% of applicants will have received their OWP by that date. Assuming there is a distribution that is somewhat normal (or likely a poisson distribution), this means that some minority of applicants receive their OWP quite early (2.5-3 months), and some quite late (4.5 months and beyond). Because the majority of applicants on this board and others report when they got OWP, there is a selection bias, and we are likely to overestimate the proportion of applicants who have received OWP 'early'. To put things in context, I remember reading somewhere that there are in the range of 60-55 thousand applicants for family reunification (granted only a portion are inland, and another portion for OWP, but likely a few thousand applicants a month).
Fretting about not receiving OWP before the 4 month deadline is largely an exercise in exerting anxiety. Some people even call CIC because they haven't received their OWP early, tying up the phone lines, using CIC resources and making it more difficult for people with actual problems to reach CIC. Some people get lucky and get their OWP early, most of us are not.
2. No. From what I've read, linking OWP online is largely about reassurance: Knowing that CIC received your application. Other than that, my understanding if that they will not send letters, or notifications for this application online. When they start and finish processing your application, it will change status online, but you need the actual paper document for OWP. At best, it signals that your OWP will arrive in the mail around a week later.
Hello July Inlanders! We are September applicants and silent followers of your thread. We consider you guys like our big brothers and sisters who've been together through 2 more months of agony and ecstasy than us the September applicants. We already received our AORs, linked our PR and OWP applications on MyCIC, and our current status shows "Submitted". So for those who received their OWPs, we want to congratulate you and ask you the following 2 questions:
- How long did it take you to get your OWPs from the date you submitted your applications and received your AORs?
- Did you get an email notification when your OWPs were approved? Or shall we keep checking it manually?