To all "inlanders",
I've been tracking the inland spousal processing time for quite a while, here is what I've found from it and I'm going to share my personal "theory".
1. Forget about the "26 month-first stage" & "12 month-second stage", it became BS since last summer (2015), because since then many cases have been processed and finalized within 18 months, with some lucky cases even completed as fast as 12 months.
Also, the 2 stage procedure were gradually integrated as one.
But why CIC website / Call centre now still insist the 26-month thing? I have no idea... and I don't really care, what I care more is below....
2. In both years 2015 and 2016, while previous year's March applications were under processed, CIC suddenly started processing the Sept applications, until end of the year.
Why CIC proceeded works under such "parallel queues" mode? I think this is a strategy to have the processing time stats reduced SIGNIFICANTLY. Let me explain with an example:
Say officers are capable to donduct 8 case this month,
backlog has 24 cases been waiting 6m - 18m (m=months)
- Under One queue mode: 18m, 18m, 17m, 17m, 16m, 16m, 15m, 15m,
then 75% case finalized in 17m, 50% case finalized in 16m
- Under Parallel queue: 18m, 18m, 17m, 17m, 12m, 12m, 11m, 11m,
then 75% case finalized in 17m, 50% case finalized in
12m ;D
OK, SIGNIFICANT reduction appears, but what if they want BETTER results? here we go:
- Under "Enhanced" Parallel queue: 18m, 18m, 12m, 12m, 11m, 11m, 10m, 10m
then 75% case finalized in
12m, 50% case finalized in
11m
This explians why many MORE later cases got processed along with A FEW older cases - CIC got huge pressure from the public and the new government, they need a BEAUTIFUL stats to show they're working hard and getting big progress! wow... isn't it amazing?
BUT, is CIC playing maths game to cheat us? well, I would say: Not really...
3. The processing time is really dropping.
Because, if you look at the spreadsheet, CIC officers are pretty hard working - within the last 1.5 months, they have processed almost 3 months' cases (with new human resources added? maybe...)
..........
Therefore, all in all, under the government and the public's pressure, CIC is turley making efforts to reduce the spousal inland application's processing time, by integrating procedure stages and conducting more cases at a time, but they also play a small "trick" to make their performance report "more beautiful"...
Thus... is actually benefiting all applicants, with some even getting extra "lucky cookies"... : )