The process is definitely non-linear. I have two friends, one from here, another from Kitchener, who had their tests last month, and got the passport requests the day after their test status changed to passed. I think the guy from Kitchener also applied in September 2020, but despite his late test date, got his decision made status some 2 weeks before me.Thank you , I sent my passport scan like 10 minutes after I received the request . but from timelines i have seen , looks like they worked backward , I have seen another person got passport request on same day of august 17 , she sent it on Aug 31 and she already received decision made like 3 weeks ago. so Hopefully mine is coming soon.
There has been many virtual ceremonies this month by Halifax office , next one on Oct 26 which includes July applicant , so hopefully our soon , but I am not sure if it will be in-person (unless you know or seen any indication of this ? )
About the switch to in-person, I'm basing that on many provinces having lifted most of their restrictions (under the vax-passport condition, granted), combined to no ceremony invitations since mid-September in both 2020 and 2019 spreadsheets. I know there are virtual ceremonies taking place right now, up to at least March next year. But no new ceremony appointments made for over a month is strange. I believe another factor that could be playing a role on that is that virtual ceremonies can't hold as many people as in-person ones, so they are probably waiting for other premiers to make announcements like the one Doug Ford made last week, that Ontario will gradually lift all restrictions till March. Then, you see the Federal Government ending most support programs, speculations about the Bank of Canada raising the interest rates before planned, inflation soaring, labour shortages... it seems the dire reality of poor economy is going to end the pandemic, regardless of the actual health outcome. After all, someone has to pay the healthcare professionals.