carl128, dude, come on. Queencougar even started her post with the exact words "Not picking you out especially" so how can you say she was singling you out? She used your post as an example, but her message was to everyone, to only contact CIO once you have genuine cause to.
You have a right to contact CIO, of course you do, but she has a right to disagree with people that do it unnecessarily.
Imagine what would happen if all 400,000 applicants at CIO including the backlog all contacted CIO periodically to get updates. It would be pandemonium. It is far more accurate to assess timelines from shared information such as our spreadsheet than it is to contact CIO to be told "33 weeks" "your application is currently under review", which is all people ever get told anyway.
The majority of people around your received date have not yet received a PER.
IMO the time to contact CIO would be if you are in the position of made711, robin_1986, midoo and zint etc when the time for receiving PER has passed several weeks and still nothing has been forthcoming from CIO. Or in cases like Katy's where there have been big delivery problems.
Other than that, you will learn far more by following the spreadsheet than you will contacting CIO in my opinion.
I sympathise because I feel CIO's communication could be a lot better. They could send an email when your application is received, and another when you pass the completeness check, and it would put applicants' minds a lot more at ease. But we have to work with the system as it is.
Anyway, I wish you luck and hope you get your PER very soon, but please stop being so defensive - we are here to help each other!
Thanks,
Wayne.