I wish this will cheer you guys up!
CIC received our application on August 8, 2011.
Sometime over the long weekend (happy Canada Day!) The status was changed to "decision made" for sponsorship application status, and "in progress" for permanent residence application status.
We sent our application to Vegreville, AB. CIC did request a client history update and it was sometime early in February, 2012.
Further, for those of you living in BC - once you lived here for longer than six months, apply for your health insurance immediately! We received the care card in November, 2011. My spouse arrived Vancouver in February, 2011 and we traveled for two weeks in May.
Almost forgot to mention - we used the old form without those bar codes.