Guys I've had a roller coaster time with this whole PR thing.
I'll tell you my story since there is no other news happening right now.
I applied for PR in October 2014. CIC received my application on October 20th 2014 (Soooooooooooooo lucky). I received confirmation in Feb 19th 2015. I applied for BOWP in march as my work permit was finished in April 1st. June I received an email to say they rejected BOWP as my passport photo never attached online so they rejected it based on an incomplete application. (I could rant about this for hours but I won't bore you all). I went home to Ireland and came back to Canada in Jan 2016 as a visitor hoping I was only a few weeks from getting PR (luckily my job allows me to work anywhere in the world with just my laptop).
In March 2016 (The day of my birthday) I received an email from CIC telling me my application was rejected because I was a contractor for the majority of my experience here in Canada. The next day I went and got a lawyer to represent me. He told me I had nothing to worry about and that he will file an appeal with the DOJ.
(Even though your company say you are a contractor for tax purposes you can actually be legally deemed an employee due to the relationship between you and the employer. e.g if you work in their building, they set your tasks and time, you are using their equipment, and you are not allowed to subcontract out the work. All this means you are legally deemed an employee)
Anyway, He filed the appeal with the DOJ in which I had to sign an affidavit. May 3rd I received an email from the DOJ saying that CIC had agreed to re-review my case. May 23rd I received the RPRF email. I paid immediately! May 25th they emailed me again requesting to do RCMP police checks as my old ones had expired. I went and did them immediately.
Now its a waiting game for them to receive the results and hopefully next stop ppr