I didn't know that IRCC was purposely delaying tackling online applications. Initially I had miscalculated for family and thought their application would be eligible in July. Turns out I was off by a couple of months.
Based on July I thought I can apply end of Feb and the 5 month head start should be enough for me to get a significantly quicker citizenship (I would like to be a Canadian citizen when I apply for work and hence the motivation to send it earlier).
Now still haven't decided whether to send paper one or not.
I don't want to influence your decision since no one knows for sure what will happen. It's good you're at least spending time thinking about your course of action.
But people that are riled up by some of the rhetoric and instantly withdrew their months-old application to then apply on paper are probably not in a great spot.
I tried to assess the motive of some of the OPs by trying to understand how they filed their original application and whether they're planning to refile etc but I didn't get a response.
What also bothers me is the sensational nature of these posts where data is released in parts initially before the full link is posted - it's like the cable news. I feel for people that are waiting for years but at the end of the day, we're not here to get justice, we're here to get our applications processed and become citizens.
Given the fact IRCC is not allowed to provide opinions along with their ATIP response - they just have to provide the data requested even if they full well know it's going to be interpreted incorrectly. - I think folks need to take time to digest it properly before acting.
It's important to get the data out, I'm all for filing as many ATIP as people like but if it becomes like Costco checkout with people constantly switching lines after seeing the next line moving faster, it could end up slowing down everyone's application in the end. Also paper applicants will stop posting updates if it becomes more and more mob-like as it is the case in some of the threads.
You can go back to 2013 and read posts complaining about unfairness in processing but it eventually got a lot batter before breaking down post-COVID. I can completely understand people that already filed being in a dilemma but people filing after now should probably choose one method and stick with it, that's good for every participant of the system.
If we keep flooding an already clogged system with duplicate applications and withdrawals, at some point it's going to completely stop working. It's in all our interest to not let that happen.