(http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op06c-eng.pdf)
Experts & Seniors:
Did any one of you came across a case where a TIME stamp has been noticed on a returned application? To my understanding, only DATE stamp is relevant and time of day when application was received is ignored.
My understanding is based on following:
Page 10 of the attachment
"Note: Applications are date stamped upon receipt at the CIO and then checked for completeness in order by date of receipt. The “application received” date at the CIO is the lock-in date. Processing offices should therefore maintain the application received date from the time of the applicant's initial submission to the CIO, and process the application to conclusion."
What I understood: It is the date that is locked-in not the time.
This is also consistent with definition on CIC cap page. the number of applications mentioned are completed applications (first hurdle), not necessarily with cc charge or PER. They may check an application for completeness and keep it in the queue for further processing, at which stage CC charge would come.
If this proves correct, we may have entirely new perspective to analyse the data we have.
Offcourse, I wish this to be true as this means all the 7th may applications are to be processed by CIO