Beogradjanin1,
Welcome to the PGWP forum. Great to have you. As much as our forum consists of open discussions and ideas of how to apply for a PGWP, we do not condone taking personal attacks on any member whatsoever. This is a good forum that most people have benefitted from including those who have never contributed to it but enjoy reading it. Contrary to what you wrote in your reply,
Jayrod seemed more optimistic of the future. I think you completely misunderstood him and his perspective on the current processing trend. Having said that, we all make mistakes because we are human.
No body or anyone on this website, including myself has a clue on why PGWP are taking longer to process. Why? Because we don't work for CIC. What we can do is to perhaps be more
analytical of the processing trend and
speculate on the events. Our individual speculation may end up being right or wrong. And that's fine. Even Meteorologists make wrong weather forecasts. Sometimes Economists wrongly speculate on future inflation, dollar appreciation/depreciation, and prices. Health scientists wrongly or rightly speculate on the spread of a disease; to mention but a few examples.
What we all need to understand is that sometimes we speculate out of either excitement (with a positive expectation about a future outcome) or with frustration (with a negative expectation about a future outcome). Specifically, when Members on this forum express themselves I would argue that they have both feelings of excitement to get their well earned PGWP and feelings of frustration that its taking too long to get it.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Lets analyze the issuance of a PGWP and its processing time, in addition to other external factors that one can't rule out. On February 21, 2015, CIC announced the extra fee of $100 for all open work permit (OWP) holders. This included PGWP, SOWP, BOWP, etc. When this announcement was made, very few people knew about it including those who applied in late February until almost the end of May. But why is this? It took almost 3 months for CIC to update their payment system in order to show the grand total of $255. In other words, applicants at the time had to pay separate fees for one service. Mind you, the literature on the extra $100 wasn't part of the overall info an applicant needed to know within their application profile. The literature was somewhere else on the website and you had to search for it. So, that alone made the process more confusing for some Members. However, once an applicant figured it out later after they submitted their application, they would then use the Case Specific Enquiry (CSE) to upload their receipt before CIC asked for it. When CIC sees that, an agent puts a note on your file and then the application is processed. If CIC requested for one's extra fees, but they didn't pay for it within 10 days of asking for it, then their application would be denied. One thing we should know for sure is that CIC doesn't sit around waiting for someone to pay. They continue processing other applications.
Therefore, I don't believe in the idea of one PGWP applicant delaying another PGWP applicant's application.
External Factors. a) I can speculate that part of the problem that has been and still stalling the processing of PGWP is tourists coming to Canada for the Women's Soccer World Cup, Pan Am Games, and Par Am Games still to come (see at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/temp/visa/panam.asp and:
http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1414514004147). Tourists, travellers, and sports enthusiasts have been a priority to CIC since the start of 2015. Hence, providing them with visitor visas (TRV). In economic/business terms, this is revenue from the tourism industry.
b) The year 2015 begun with a bang, which included the introduction of the Express Entry (EE). There were backlogs already for PR applicants and they've been a priority.
c) Study permits (SP) for new students and extension of study permits (SP) for continuing students have also been a priority. Some members have asked a fair question: Why have SP processing times gone down? My answer to this question is simple; SPs are as of now a priority to CIC. September is knocking on the door and a month away and they need to process the SP backlog as quickly as possible. Universities and Colleges have complained for a long time about their international student intake quota. They've done their job to provide acceptance letters to incoming students and progress letters to those continuing. That is why the previous and current processing times data has been moving in the opposite direction for PGWP and SP in the last couple of months. PGWP processing times are increasing at an increasing rate, whereas SP times have been decreasing at a decreasing rate. I still have a feeling that at some point SP processing times will decrease at an increasing rate.
d) I may add that some members applied according to when they graduated and received written notification from their respective institutions. In some institutions it takes 5 working days to get the Confirmation Letter or Official Transcript after all grades are in, whereas in other institutions it may take 1-3 weeks. Other members applied after they returned from their travels after graduation.
e) Every year the CIC website has a
habit of breaking down for several consecutive days (sometimes almost a week) at different times of the year. Specifically, the individual application profiles get stuck/frozen. Sometimes one can't get past the login and security questions. Other times when one gets past that, then they are stonewalled by the inability to upload or submit an application. Imagine what several days or a week of inaccessibility to the site does to applications
internally (CIC's side) and
externally (applicants' side). All these issues contributed to delays in processing PGWP applications.
In future we will see a change in the processing times for New TRV within Canada. As of July 31, 2015, CIC updated the processing times and they indicated that both paper and online applications for New TRV within Canada are taking 16 days to process for applications submitted on July 9, 2015. Strange! The processing time for PGWP will decrease, however, that of New TRV might increase. Why? Just like now, everyone will be wanting to have their hands on a new TRV and people will be applying like crazy. Best time to watch out for that is during the Fall semester.
Beogradjanin1, I can understand your frustration too as a PGWP applicant. But we cannot blame Members on this wonderful forum for the delay in the processing of our individual PGWP applications and nor can we blame CIC agents. It is not an ascertained fair assertion.
Sometimes things just don't always work out according to plan. It is the world we live in and that's life.
Like I've said numerous times; this is simply a waiting game. That time is coming when we will all be smiling with a PGWP in hand and we will look back and say, ‘wow, that was quite a wait, but it was worth it!' As a reminder, we can look back in time before we came to Canada. We stressed out on getting a SP, but we finally made it here, and withered through the storm of sleepless nights of studying until we graduated. PGWP? That is nothing compared to before we came to Canada and we all have a 99% chance of getting a PGWP no matter how long it takes.
My suggestion is to stay positive and enjoy the summer as you wait. I wish members and other silent followers of this forum good luck.
Cheers!
