Hi Yaya,
We all share the same pain, myself included. I'm by no means happy with the situation, but I try and keep it in perspective.
In all reality, they're not intentionally doing anything to slow the application process down. I believe the lengthy processing time is due to the sheer volume of applications that go through Mississauga, and the respective visa offices of each country. It's likely that all the offices, Mississauga included, are understaffed, and being so, cannot run a 24-hour operation, cannot work on weekends and holidays, etc. There are a limited number of people who go through the applications, and given that we are all waiting in a queue of sorts, we have to wait for those ahead of us to process. If those ahead of us have all the necessary materials, but are poorly organized, the IO has to sort things out. In many cases, the handwriting may be difficult to interpret. This further slows down the processing of applications ahead of us. Now, if an application is missing components, it's my understanding that application is put to the side, and they grab another one from the queue.
There's also probably no incentive to go above-and-beyond, when it comes to being an IO. I doubt they're paid very much, so like someone who works at the post office, or other government service-oriented establishment, they're not too concerned if you have to wait a little bit longer, as they'll still be making whatever they make. Why put in 120%, when you'll only be paid for 100%? You have to remember that IO's are humans too, they have feelings, are capable of compassion and understand the situations of those people behind the applications they work with. Unfortunately, they're forced to be skeptical of each and every application that comes in, trained to find fault, and expected to raise a red flag at even the slightest oddity. It's their job, and like us, they want to keep their job no matter what, especially in these less-than-stellar economic times. I'm absolutely sure they get audited periodically, and in fact, there could be 'dummy' applications that come in, specifically used to ensure IO's are doing their job. If an IO misses something, and approves PR for an application that shouldn't receive it, that could be the end of their employment with CIC.
I try and keep this in the back of my mind, while waiting through this ordeal. It helps me not to hate the people I'm waiting on. As I said, I'm not happy with the wait, however, I'm just one of hundreds of thousands of people looking to immigrate just this year alone. And again, if you keep it in perspective, what we're doing is HUGE! You're voluntarily leaving your home country, and moving to another. That's a totally new environment, new laws and regulations, new people, new opportunities. I wouldn't expect something like this to be very easy. It's pretty complicated. But soooo worth it! Yes, the months will seem to crawl by, but it's just that, a matter of months. You'll have your whole life ahead of you, in Canada, and in retrospect, you'll realize this hurdle, though overwhelming, was one easily overcome through patience and faith.
That's just my two cents.
