Please Update The Status:
Location (city): Toronto
App type (single or # of people): 2
Physical presence days: 1166
App sent date: 28 Sep 2020
App delivered date: 02 Oct 2020
AOR Received: 20 Jan 2021
In Process: 19 Feb 2021
Congratulations! That was quick - just under a month.
I am also in Toronto ! I also delivered my application a week after you & got my AOR a week after as well. Hopefully a week or so till more IPR's start being sent.
Then it's waiting till the test invite. So far, none of the regular 2020 applicants have received a test invite. I have been hearing that the current test intakes are quite low due to some issues regarding connectivity & identity verification. Further, a member on this forum has requested information on the test intakes (along with oath intakes), so we will have a clearer picture soon.
Last time around, I was partially right about mid to late Jan AORs and mid to late Feb IPR. But we had a great insight from the earlier months numbers back then.
For the test, any guess would be blind speculation but I have time to burn so why not. I can see January Invites starting by Mid Mar and February invites by late Apr. Then I can see it picking up pace, with March receiving early May and April receiving mid to late May. Keeping up with that pace, I can see May receiving early June and June receiving mid to late June. Etcetera, etcetera until October receives invites by early September.
Quite a long way ahead but hopefully the Oaths pick up pace simultaneously such that we see Oath invites for our batch by mid October (a 1 year overall processing time). This is not too farfetched given the earlier 3-4 month timeline (way before COVID however).
I believe IRCC has the infrastructure in place to pull this off. SWOT is useful here cause why not:
Strengths - Online testing and online oaths means IRCC could have larger numbers of testing and oaths in the same time span as compared to pre-COVID. Information from the pilot program suggests this is indeed the case, given IRCC has decided to continue with it.
Weaknesses - Connectivity and identity verification issues could restrict IRCC from realizing the full potential of their infrastructure. The reduced workforce also means potential is restricted.
Opportunities - If IRCC tackle the above issues, we can see the pace being picked up tremendously. Further, with vaccinations being rolled out at a population wide September promise, we can start seeing more IRCC workers back to the office by Summer (presumably when the threat of the virus has significantly diminished). This increased workforce will undoubtedly lead to faster processing and thus faster test invites given the infrastructure can handle it (probably can).
Threats - IRCC is unable to cope with the above mentioned issues. Unfortunately, this will lead to either prolonged sub-capacity operation of their infrastructure OR a revert back to the old infrastructure (physical testing & oaths). I would place the former more likely than the latter since I would presume the online infrastructure is more productive than the physical one. However, the former likely has a significant likelihood of occurring which could mean a long time till our test invites (possibly into 2022).
But with my rambling out of the way, congrats once again. Hopefully, more such pleasant news in the near future.