While I do not know to what extent citizenship application files might be assigned to a particular processing agent (which if they are, that would mostly mean the file is in some kind of in-box for a particular processing agent), we know that there are maybe three to five days TOTAL that anyone is actually actively working on a citizenship application (with some exceptions, which no one wants to be since that would be not just a non-routine case but entangled in one of the more complex and time-consuming non-routine procedures). The other 400 to 700, or so, days the file is in one queue or another. Waiting for an agent to take the file from the queue to do the next step. In the meantime there is NOTHING happening. The file is in queue. Sitting in queue.
Basically, again with some exceptions, when a processing agent takes the next application in queue, that agent starts and completes the relevant task, for that step in the process, then and there, taking fifteen minutes or an hour and fifteen minutes, during which the agent completes the task at hand and also does a digital GCMS background screening -- which is mostly to look for updates or changes to the file, and to run the criminal name record check which is, at the least, run against an interagency shared version of the RCMP and the U.S. NCIC (FBI) name-record databases. This GCMS clearance is required every time a processing agent or citizenship officer takes any action on a citizenship application. Then the file goes back into a queue for the next step.
I cannot read minds or hearts, or otherwise second-guess the emotional responses of IRCC personnel, least of all the least informed of them engaged as telephone agents in the help or client support centre, but I can easily imagine their frustration getting call after call pressing them for information that does not exist or is otherwise not accessible through them . . . their access to information they can share is largely limited to
-- FAQ like information that is largely generic (their primary function)
-- a view of the client's GCMS record that is mostly the same as what would be shared with the client through the ATIP process, as of that moment in time . . . in effect much is redacted or, like most databases access protocols, the output is specified by the type of report, displaying information in certain fields, not displaying other fields
The overriding thing is that for the vast majority of qualified applicants, those who have no reason to apprehend there is a problem with their application (apart from the well-known mire of processing generally, and which appears to be affecting summer and fall 2019 applicants the worst),
there is NOTHING to be learned . . . as the call centre agents repeat, again and again and again, each perhaps in their own way but generally amounting to the same message: situation normal, application in queue, agents will get to it in due course (due course being much slower than applicants want, by a lot these days).
For the others, the exceptions from the vast majority: Other than possibly noting the file is "non-routine," the call centre agents mostly give the same message to applicants EVEN if the application has left the routine track and is involved in more problematic procedures. They cannot see (any more than the applicant will see in a copy of the GCMS records obtained via ATIP) any information about referrals to CBSA and its NSSD for investigations, for example. That is confidential information, methods and means stuff. BUT notwithstanding protests to the contrary, almost every applicant whose application has been referred for such an investigation KNOWS at least there is the likelihood of this in their particular case. Pretenses of ignorance do not fly. Who and why applications get sidetracked is no great mystery.
Of course I have no clue where in the scheme of things your situation fits. But frankly it is almost certainly among the vast majority, nothing to worry about, enduring however much angst the excessive processing time is causing you personally, in queue and, as the agents will repeat, it will get there . . . OR . . . you know there is reason to apprehend a more difficult, inconvenient, and potentially much longer processing time looming. One or the other. And since YOU know your file, your case, your history, your situation better than anyone else in the entire world, no need to call the help line to find out how things are going. You basically know if you can RELAX (but yeah, still have to wait extraordinarily long these days) or have reason to WORRY.
I have gone into that detail not just for you . . . but as a reminder for most, for the vast majority. No need to waste time or energy chasing ghosts. No need to bang your head against the wall and invite even more anger and stress into the mix. Having to wait, given current processing timelines, is disappointing and discouraging enough. As someone who has been around, and around and around, I can definitively caution the angst adds up in the course of life, steering clear when one can will make a difference.
None of which is intended to discourage, in the least, ongoing activism aimed at incentivizing IRCC to do a better and more efficient job. Even as to this, many will benefit from picking their battles, not go off combating windmills, recognizing some are more suited to carry on the fight than others. We can admire those who carry the oriflamme and otherwise do our part as is suited to our own station in these matters.
But the struggle to get citizenship application processing on a faster track is not a battle to be waged with mere help centre call agents.