Anyone has any idea or guesses what processes are performed by cic between DM and oath letter. Just wondering what all these months are required for.
Consistent with what others have observed: The overwhelming bulk of time is time spent in queue.
While most stores have made a concerted effort to minimize the amount of time shoppers stand in line waiting to go through the check out, sometimes shoppers will have to stand in line. If there are three or four people in line in front of the shopper, the time spent in line is longer than it takes to go through the checking out process.
Waiting for IRCC to process a citizenship application is a lot like standing in line at the store, except for any given local office there is only one or four check out clerks and the line has HUNDREDS of applicants in it.
Back in the store line analogy, so you wait your turn and when you finally get to the check out clerk the clerk notices there is something you have which needs to be handled by a different person, so your purchases are not checked but rather you are sent to a completely new line . . . and you have to wait in that line until that particular thing is resolved and they send you back to the check out line again, and you wait in that line again . . .
From start to finish, for the routinely processed application the total amount of time all IRCC personnel spend on the individual applicant's case probably totals NO MORE than a couple or four hours. Total. Just a few hours TOTAL actual processing time.
In between each step, the file sits in a queue waiting for the next action to be taken. The queue between IP and the test/interview, for example, will often be three to six or eight months, or more, the file just sitting there waiting for a processing agent to review it and schedule the test.