Having chatted about this with others about how IRCC works I think there are a lot of factors they are looking at when they're deciding who gets processed first. I've started to think they are going through the applications in order of submission, but have specific things they are looking for such as certain NOC codes, the places where we've said we intend to live, age, dependents etc. and it's all to do with what the government need to fill where first. They will be the people getting pulled out first to be processed. They obviously have a need for immigrants working in some occupations more urgently than in others. We're in the IG stream but we still had to say which NOC code we were currently working in. Similarly, if they've just processed 200 applicants for say Vancouver, they might skip a few people saying they wanted to live in Vancouver so that it gets shared out equally across the country. For example, I'm NOC code 4012 in small-town BC - they just might not need that many research assistants urgently in a rural town (I work from home) so I don't get priority processing... this is my guess now. If it's true then it's a bit frustrating as for people waiting like myself (fsss, Tomican, Sabpreet, plender etc.) we don't know if we'll be processed this week, next week... next month, or after they've got to the end of 40,000 applicants and then come back to the beginning. It just depends on what they're directed to do each week by the big important people...
I spoke with an IRCC agent again earlier this week and he said the biggest mistake we all make is comparing each others timelines as every application is treated differently - so I'm thinking this will be my last post for a while as I'm gonna peace out for a while and just try to forget about it until I get that notification in my inbox! Now that we know it doesn't seem to be fifo it's actually more annoying seeing all the AORs being compared than it is helpful
I'm also eligible to join the EE pool next month under CEC... who knows, maybe I'll also do that. Good luck in the meantime guys!