Disclaimer: The explanations below are based on communications with forum members, observation of actual timelines posted by members, my GCMS notes, and extensive personal research. These MAY NOT be the fact nor they are legal advices. Also actual processing time varies by your VO. These explanations only apply to CEC applications filed in late 2022 and early 2023.
Hope this helps anyone who has similar questions, because I've seen them being posted again and again.
I originally posted this thread around noon today, but it was blocked from public view because I edited some spelling errors a couple times.
Stages:
R10 - Happens 15-30 days after AOR. In this stage a program assistant checks if all the requested documents are there. They WILL NOT validate anything. Under current Temporary Public Policy you are exempt to do a new medical if you are residing in Canada. The assistant will mark your medical as passed in order to let the application proceed to the next step. Your GCMS notes will have following words: "... TPP dated October 6, 2022: please review" that's a reminder to the officer who processes background check in a later stage. If you provided your old UCI in the PR application form your biometrics will be retrieved and linked to your application using that. In this stage they will send your biometrics to RCMP to conduct criminality check. They will check your foreign PCC to ensure they shows NRT (no reportable trace) and validate language scores and ECAs. If anything is missing they will send out ADR or return your application.
Your tracker will show biometrics and medicals "Completed" if you passed R10.
Eligibility - currently happens 2-3 months after R10. Pretty straightforward, first a case analyst will check and validate your documents, mostly related to your employment in Canada, to see if job description matches NOC, if your NOC is correct, etc., and make recommendations. If everything is good then it is Recommend Passed. If not, mostly due to your job descriptions is missing and you did not provide LOE, then it is Review Required. There will probably be a GU but some do not have a GU during this action. About 2-3 weeks after the case analyst had made recommendation, an Officer will check the recommendation and look through your documents again. The Officer is the guy who can refuse your application if they find you not eligible under A11.2. The Officer then will made the final judgement to pass or fail your eligibility.
Usually if a case analyst makes "recommend passed" they will send out RPRF request if you did not pay upfront, because officers usually pass eligibility if a case analyst makes "recommend passed" decision. If it's "review required" and officer "passed" your eligibility the RPRF request is sent after Officer passed your eligibility. So if you've received a RPRF request that's a very good news.
Your tracker's Eligibility will show "in progress" after the analyst recommendation, regardless the result. It will turn to "Completed" after the officer PASSED your eligibility. you will get a GU after eligibility decision has been made by the officer.
Background Check - Info sharing will happen sometime after R10. Security will happen after eligibility passed (there will be a GU for security start). In this stage they will now check and validate everything other than your employment documents. They will check your medicals no matter it's new or expired one under the temporary policy (that's why some people will see medicals passed AGAIN a few days before PPR). They will receive information from RCMP, CSIS, etc. for your traces of criminal activity. BGC has three stages: Medical (passed again), Criminality (check and validate your PCC), and Security (no one knows what happens because the process is highly confidential).
Your tracker will show "in progress" or just "not started" which does not matter. Usually the tracker BGC will be "completed" a few days before PPR or even post-PPR, depends on the VO.
You will have portal email a few days after BGC has been completed. There will be a GU after the BGC is completed (the GU one or two days before PPR)
To sum up the current process for average people: AOR - (15-30 days) - R10 (GU) - (2-3 months) - Eligibility recommendation - (2-3 weeks) - Eligibility decision by officer (GU) - (immediately or 1-2 days) - BGC (1-2 GUs) - (2 weeks - 1 month) - PPR.
Hope this helps! And as always check the disclaimer on the top of this page.
