REMINDER: the overwhelming vast majority of time an application is "in process" it is simply WAITING in a QUEUE for an agent or officer to take the next step. So when an applicant telephones the Help Centre (with some exceptions, most being about a happenstance of timing) it is most likely (by a big, big margin) the application is
NOT BEING WORKED ON at that time, but is sitting in a queue, sitting waiting for someone to actually work on it. The amount of time spent actually working on a given application by any given agent or officer is probably a matter of MINUTES, less than an hour (except for more difficult non-routine issues, like full blown RQ, in which event the Citizenship Officer might, just MIGHT, be spending an amount of time on the application which can be expressed in terms of hours and parts of an hour).
In the meantime, the term "background check" is descriptive and does NOT refer to any particular check or clearance. And thus it warrants another reminder: to some extent there is a background check done each and every time any agent or officer acts on the application. At the least this is, indeed, as simple as suggested by
@sarafandee: "
Type a person's name into a computer and see if you get any results, voila!" And, again, it is done every time an agent or officer acts on the file since they are required to do a GCMS check every time, and that check includes FOSS, and thus includes (again, at the least) a check for name-record hits in the RCMP criminal history data bases as well as in the U.S. FBI/NCIC database (as shared with Canadian authorities).
In addition to the GCMS check (which, again, is repeated throughout the process), there are two other formal CLEARANCES: the RCMP criminal and security clearance, and the CSIS security clearance. Neither of these are done by IRCC. They are done by the RCMP and CSIS respectively. These can involve far more than a name-record check into an electronic data base. The referral for these clearances is (probably still) made in the same task-step that opens the file in GCMS, that is at the same time the application is given AOR. Processing the application does NOT wait on receipt of these clearances. Details about this aspect of the process are strictly confidential, but enough is known to recognize these clearances are usually complete and entered into GCMS well by the time a processing agent opens the file in a local office. There are exceptions, of course, such that a few applicants are the subject of more extensive criminality or security checks. And yes, some are referred to Canadian authorities overseas for further inquiry (and these, in particular, tend to take a long time). BUT, for the vast majority of applicants the RCMP and CSIS clearances are done, no problem, no delay. Sometimes an update of the clearances is required, but here too the parameters for when an update is required are confidential.
There are different levels of access to GCMS records. I do not know for sure, but my sense is that Help Centre agents either have the same level of access as the individual applicant (such as what the applicant would receive in response to an ATIP request) or perhaps a just slightly higher level of access. This level of access reveals very little about either the RCMP or CSIS clearances, at most indicating complete but probably, usually, indicating an open field EVEN IF the clearance has actually been done and entered by the respective agency (RCMP or CSIS). Again, details at this level are largely confidential. But most indications suggest that even when the RCMP and CSIS have submitted their respective clearance, GCMS does NOT show these as completed UNLESS and UNTIL the appropriate official at IRCC has taken a particular step in processing. It is not clear whether this can be a processing agent preparing an assessment of the application to be referred to the responsible Citizenship Officer for a decision on the application, or whether this is something done by the Citizenship Officer.
IN ANY EVENT, it is very likely it is true that the application is waiting for the clearances to be "complete" until that processing step is done. So it is NOT a lie for the Help Centre agents to say the application is waiting for a background check to be completed. Even though the respective agency itself has in fact completed and filed the respective clearance.
In the meantime, the processing agent and/or Citizenship Officer also perform tasks on the application which fall under the ambit of what one would describe as a "background" check. For some applicants, for example, there is a more thorough screening of the applicant's employment or address history. I.E. background checking. Ranging from making telephone calls and researching open sources, such as researching information in internet accounts including LinkedIn, to doing GCMS checks on the identified employers (primarily to see if the named employer has been tagged or flagged in other immigration checks). Again, all this is probably done in a matter of minutes, not hours, though for some perhaps it involves an hour or more.
THUS, OVERALL:
It is quite likely that some Help Centre agents give a generic response to status inquiries, a response which is roughly some version of "
waiting for background check (or clearance)," whether or not the application is in fact waiting for some particular clearance. This is probably, in part, just the fastest, easiest way to conclude the telephone call (so the Help Centre agent can get to another caller, one with a
REAL question), and is employed (by the Help Centre agent) when it is readily apparent the application is simply IN QUEUE waiting for the next step to be done. There really is no other answer which would be any more useful or informative.
If my impression is correct, that is if my sense of this is correct, and based on a long-term pattern of anecdotal reports in conjunction with what is known about how the process works I do have quite a bit of confidence about this,
it is a fairly typical Help Centre agent response to inquiries which are basically in the nature of "Are we there YET?" (And yes, this appropriately evokes an image of impatient children in the back seat of a car on a long trip. Sorry, but that is how it usually is.)
That is, when the Help Centre agent interprets the inquiry to really be
"Are we there YET?" the agent is, in effect, simply replying "
NO, your application is in QUEUE waiting for the next step."
And this is NOT a lie. The next step will always involve, at the least, another GCMS background check. And that must be done before the next action is taken, be that earlier in the process when the next step is scheduling a test and interview, or at the end phase of the process when a Citizenship Officer makes the final decision to grant citizenship and schedule the applicant for an oath ceremony.
