chickie72 said:
but if you read the bottom of his email it is saying it starts when received by Mississauga
Quote from Maddant's email:
"Processing times are calculated from the date the
application is approved by Case Processing Centre Mississauga"
I think whether the 18 months starts at time of sponsorship approval or when it reaches the foreign visa office, you can + or - 2 weeks for the transfer time. For me, I never knew the actual date my file reached KG so I just started counting from the sponsor approval date of June 26 and added two weeks. I think it makes a little more sense to count from when it reaches the foreign office because nothing can be done while the file is in transit.
EDIT: Chickie, I believe you are technically right because if you go to the processing times at CIC, it also states the time in stage 1 and stage 2 are consecutive (current 55 days + 18 months for Jamaica) which means the 18 months starts immediately after you are approved at stage 1.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-fc.asp