Yes Outland also has abysmal processing rates. In fact most of them are really not that much better (or in some cases worse) than inland. Especially if you go by the CIC processing times on their website, the current processing time for the London office for spousal sponsorship is well over 29 months. For the USA it is in the range of 17-39 months. Although many people on this forum are finding the times are shorter (many Americans are getting theirs in 10 months). However, we can only plan for what the website says, and 10-12 months is still atrocious compared to the competition.granol said:
Personally there is a certain point where I have to question the competency of CIC staff themselves. Yes, I understand there were budget cuts and Harper did little to alleviate backlogs, but in difficult circumstances you must innovate and/or burn the midnight oil. I personally work as a visa officer for a private company and when we have a backlog or foresee a problem we find a way to make it happen, these are people's lives we are talking about. Even if this means us sacrificing services elsewhere.
Perhaps the most glaring example I experienced of CIC's blatant inability to help with any visa application, was when I was working for a Korean University in Seoul, Korea. Many of our students were doing study abroad and I was assisting them with visa prep. Many of our student complained about their inability to get answers to queries. E-mails went unanswered after months, and there was no phone number. I attempted myself, to no avail. Eventually out of desperation I e-mailed the trade/business commissioner contact stating that I was organizing a field trip for business executives from the university to tour universities in Canada for possible exchange opportunities. I received an answer within a day (a person actually called me!?), and offered full guidance and assistance with this, and even given personal e-mails of staff at the embassy that could walk us through visa applications and answer any questions I may have.(at that time the embassy in Seoul processed all visas for Korea and the surrounding area).
I was shocked, student applicants and family applicants couldn't even get a person on the phone, but if you have a business related application or endeavour there are teams of staff waiting in the wings to assist. While my experience is purely anecdotal, it seems to me to show that family application are not top priority. The staff and resources used for the trade and business portions of embassies or consulates should have been reallocated for family based applications or other applications that affect Canadian citizens directly until the processing times are reduced to days rather than months/years.
