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February 2021 - Citizenship applications

ts270890

Hero Member
Apr 8, 2016
584
418
People from Sep-Dec 2020 who recently got the decision have their Oath in Mar 2022. I am not very hopeful Feb 2021 applicants will get it before June 2022 to be realistic irrespective of whether Online or by mail.
I think if the pandemic subsides and they start in-person oath it will become faster.
 

nawalasansol

Hero Member
May 29, 2017
214
82
What do you mean?

I saw an update on the 9th but none of the sections got updated, so I called that a ghost update. Then I logged in today and saw:
1- Last Update: September 13th (today).
2- BG section marked as complete
3- Application history has a new entry: BG status updated to completed on September 10th.

How do you know it's a ghost update? In my profile it says

Updated: September 10, 2021 ( at the top right corner) but no update. In-Progress status was August 13th.
 

riyahm

Star Member
Mar 3, 2017
53
5
Hi, I am seeing some people with my similar submission date received ghosts updates followed by BG complete etc.
What time of the day usually this ghost update shows up? I haven't received any such update so just intrigued. :)
 

engray

Champion Member
Jul 20, 2018
1,043
635
Hi, I am seeing some people with my similar submission date received ghosts updates followed by BG complete etc.
What time of the day usually this ghost update shows up? I haven't received any such update so just intrigued. :)
I usually check in the morning.
 

engray

Champion Member
Jul 20, 2018
1,043
635
So only date change means ghost update?
Thanks for responding. Hopefully, something is coming my way.
I remember from the PR days, whenever we see "Updated" on the IRCC portal without an actual update, we called it ghost update. People in this forum started referring to the date being updated in the new tracker without any of the sections getting updated as ghost update. Most people see a real update within few days. Some don't even see an update for a while.

Good luck!
 
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orly

Star Member
Oct 9, 2012
191
63
Guelph, Ontario
Category........
Visa Office......
London
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
11-12-2012
AOR Received.
01-01-2013
File Transfer...
09-01-2013
Med's Done....
15-11-2012
Passport Req..
Exempt
VISA ISSUED...
05-08-2013
LANDED..........
17-08-2013 (lived in Canada since 2012 though)
I notice a "lag" of some days for things to appear on the online status tool. I took the test on the 6th for example. Today (13th) it finally updated to say my test was marked as completed...but it then says this occurred on September 10th. Smells like it took someone a few days to verify I actually did the test, passed it, didn't cheat etc, and then hit some big confirm button somewhere. And then it took another few days for the webpage to update.

Regarding "ghost updates" - This takes me back to my permanent residence application. Did an ATIP request on myself when it was complete. Got an email with 42 pages of stuff in a nice PDF. The document basically outlined the complete application from start to finish. Could see every step. When it arrived, when someone looked at it, every time they added information to my file. Timestamps galore. Any time they got some new information from medical checks, or when my MP's office phoned them to ask for an update (I applied in a year when CIC staff were on strike and I was in Canada on a temporary visa so time was of the essence). Could see the RCMP security check being initiated...as part of a batch file likely with a bunch of other applicants. Could even see when they scanned parts of the application (paper based) and converted them into TIF images because it listed the attachment file names lol. Saw stuff being processed in Mississauga, some in Kitchener, some stuff in the UK. You'd see vague identifiers all over the place like "JS1034" or "AJ4532" and then later you'd see it randomly saying "John Smith" or "Amy Jones" (fake names for illustrative purposes) and then you realised it was actually the IDs and name of the officers doing the work. Was probably a few dozen officer IDs in it. Occasionally, aside from automatically generated stuff, you could see the actual written notes from the officers about what they were doing or decisions they were coming to.

Assuming the processes are similar today there's probably offices full of people (or perhaps working from home) all touching bits and pieces of our files and updating stuff all the time without it being immediately apparent. Not hard to imagine them hitting buttons on some system somewhere and then overnight or a day or two later it updates some database and then that pops up on the webpage.
 

Vigilant

Champion Member
Nov 15, 2013
1,015
112
Pakistan
Category........
FSW
Visa Office......
LVO
App. Filed.......
June-2010
Doc's Request.
Oct-2013
File Transfer...
June-2013
Med's Request
Jan-2014
Interview........
N/A
Passport Req..
April 2014
VISA ISSUED...
May-2014
LANDED..........
June-2014
Hi,
"Decision Made" for my spouse today. Everything set to completed except the Ceremony which is not started yet.
Thanks.
 

eagle922

Star Member
Mar 23, 2015
135
78
ATIP documents indicate that 5k online applicants will be the target for this FY, so we will see
They took a lot of backlashes when 5k online applicants in Dec 2020 got citizenship over people who have been waiting for more than a year. They justified it as a pilot for the online program. I doubt they will do anything similar again favoring some candidates over others, but let's see.
 

Nina53

Hero Member
Mar 15, 2017
359
149
App. Filed.......
March 2017
Hi,
"Decision Made" for my spouse today. Everything set to completed except the Ceremony which is not started yet.
Thanks.
Wonderful news!
If I may ask, when did your wife pass the test and what was the test window? Thank you.
 

engray

Champion Member
Jul 20, 2018
1,043
635
They took a lot of backlashes when 5k online applicants in Dec 2020 got citizenship over people who have been waiting for more than a year. They justified it as a pilot for the online program. I doubt they will do anything similar again favoring some candidates over others, but let's see.
They didn't give 5000 online applicants citizenship, there can't be 5k applicants in December. You can see from the docs the breakdown of online applications. It is clear that they had 1800 applicants, took 10% (180) and they were the End-to-End testing pilot where they went through the whole process.
FY 2021-2022 will see 5k online applicants going through the process.

Hi,
"Decision Made" for my spouse today. Everything set to completed except the Ceremony which is not started yet.
Thanks.
Congrats!
I notice a "lag" of some days for things to appear on the online status tool. I took the test on the 6th for example. Today (13th) it finally updated to say my test was marked as completed...but it then says this occurred on September 10th. Smells like it took someone a few days to verify I actually did the test, passed it, didn't cheat etc, and then hit some big confirm button somewhere. And then it took another few days for the webpage to update.

Regarding "ghost updates" - This takes me back to my permanent residence application. Did an ATIP request on myself when it was complete. Got an email with 42 pages of stuff in a nice PDF. The document basically outlined the complete application from start to finish. Could see every step. When it arrived, when someone looked at it, every time they added information to my file. Timestamps galore. Any time they got some new information from medical checks, or when my MP's office phoned them to ask for an update (I applied in a year when CIC staff were on strike and I was in Canada on a temporary visa so time was of the essence). Could see the RCMP security check being initiated...as part of a batch file likely with a bunch of other applicants. Could even see when they scanned parts of the application (paper based) and converted them into TIF images because it listed the attachment file names lol. Saw stuff being processed in Mississauga, some in Kitchener, some stuff in the UK. You'd see vague identifiers all over the place like "JS1034" or "AJ4532" and then later you'd see it randomly saying "John Smith" or "Amy Jones" (fake names for illustrative purposes) and then you realised it was actually the IDs and name of the officers doing the work. Was probably a few dozen officer IDs in it. Occasionally, aside from automatically generated stuff, you could see the actual written notes from the officers about what they were doing or decisions they were coming to.

Assuming the processes are similar today there's probably offices full of people (or perhaps working from home) all touching bits and pieces of our files and updating stuff all the time without it being immediately apparent. Not hard to imagine them hitting buttons on some system somewhere and then overnight or a day or two later it updates some database and then that pops up on the webpage.
This makes sense!
 
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