MY CARD IS FINALLY IN MY HANDS!!!!!!! Actually it must have arrived on Friday the 11th itself, as I was out of town and just got home to check my mail. My trials and tribulations of the past 11 years (10 years on visa in USA and 17 months on visa in Canada) are finally over.. Thanks to everyone in this group for helping and sharing their experience.
I will be on hiatus from here now, but sharing my timeline & tips for those who are still waiting.
ITA: Aug 5, 2021 (CEC class, solo, no dependents)
Filed through lawyer. We don't need one for straightforward cases such as mine, but I still opted for one as I had an extremely stressful work and home situation going on, which would have made it difficult for me not to make mistakes in filing my application.
AOR: Sept 28, 2021
Medicals & Bio passed (bio was reused from previous work visa application): Nov 3, 2021
From the conversations with my lawyer and account page screenshots he shared from time to time, I never got any GUs whatsoever. Jumped straight from MEP to portal email.
Portal email: Dec 10, 2021
Responded to portal email: Dec 10, 2021 -
I think this is a very crucial stage. Try to reply to them asap with concise and exact info they ask for. The officer has your case fresh in their mind, so getting a quick reply from us might encourage them in closing our file (i.e., sending eCoPR email) right away.
Photo, address uploaded on portal: Dec 11, 2021 4.30 pm
ECOPR: Dec 11, 2021, 6.30 pm
Note that because my application page was controlled by my lawyer, I couldn't link my PR portal to the application page. It's not needed anyway. Just adds an extra task of checking for GUs 100 times a day. In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't have that access or else I would have driven myself crazy.
From Dec 21st, I started emailing the Prairies ID every alternate week. Details given - UCI, Name, Application ID, and asked for status. Nothing special written in those emails. Just your standard begging emails.
Kept getting the same standard useless response. Later I found out from this group that there was a printing issue back in Nov/Dec which was causing delays. My bad luck. Waited for holiday season to pass. Caught up on lost sleep.
Mid-Jan 2022: Called IRCC at 8 am sharp and managed to get to an agent after 45 mins of waiting. (Detailed experience is posted earlier on this thread). This helped greatly, because apparently my application ID was linked to 5 different physical addresses and 2 different email IDs. I think that agent fixed it in the system.
Increased email-spamming frequency to once a week as I was getting anxious now. Target plan of urgent overseas travel. I decided FTW, even if this card doesn't come, I'll take the risk and travel as planned.
Jan end: Spammed them 2 days in a row, twice on each day. Was tired by now. Wait time of eCoPR to PR was becoming nearly the same as AOR to eCoPR (which is stupid IMO).
Feb 2, 2022: Got a response that my photo was approved and sent for printing.
Feb 7, 2022: Replied to above email asking card shipment status and specifically stated that I don't have a way to access my account so please tell me over email.
Feb 9, 2022: Got response that my card was mailed on 8th Feb.
Today (Feb 14, 2022): Got back home from out of town and discovered the card in mail. It was standard Canada post but it says IRCC and shows the Sydney, NS address, so you know it's from them. P.S., PR portal still shows in review, no clue of what my account says
Hope this helps. All the best!!