There is probably not a single study permit approved to anyone applying from Oman since 18 March 2020 and that includes those who applied January 2020 so have been waiting already almost 10 months.
I must point out though, the level of uncertainty with COVID19 between early this year and now has been drastically reduced. At the beginning of the year every country was in total panic mode and it was all about "shut down, lock down, close borders, etc...". Today is quite a bit different (hence the 20th of Oct update). True there is a back log of 10s of 1000s of applications, but it appears the 2 stage approval process was to somehow mitigate that. This is my take, my optimistic take.
There's been another approval I've seen of a Filipina lady that lives in Libya. In any case this forum is awesome, but it represents only a fraction of what's actually out there. It is however a good place to get a feel for what the general application environment is like.
Not yet, I submitted all documents online and applied on October 8th, did my biometrics the following day on October 9th and now I am waiting for my approval. For some reason, before submitting, it said that the estimation for my country Lebanon is 3 weeks, but now it's 8 weeks.
Sorry I forgot to reply properly to your question: I applied on the 2nd of Sep and got an AIP on the 14th of Sep. I already have my biometrics done from last year.
There's been another approval I've seen of a Filipina lady that lives in Libya. In any case this forum is awesome, but it represents only a fraction of what's actually out there. It is however a good place to get a feel for what the general application environment is like.
Great that makes 3 and there must be about 1000 in this forum. It's terrible I think. Hopes dashed as the DLI covid ready list is still not out and no new study permit approvals. It would have helped to state study permits would finally be approved en masse and I worry it's not going to happen even for a minority any time this year.
Students should prepare for difficulty finding a part-time job. If you are counting on the income this should factor into your decision to come to Canada. You also need to have a quarantine plan in place that you'll need to pay for as well.
No one should be making any plans to travel to Canada until study permits are issued. All of us have offers from DLIs but it's no guarantee a study permit will be granted, except those lucky few where the passport has been requested in gcms notes.