We had the same difficulties, we hired the lawyer in November of 2010, we did the medicals in February 2011 and didnt get the package to CIC till April 2011. So I guess that is 6 months it took them to prep our package and in the end they neglected to include pertinant information that delayed our case another 4 months. We are almost at the year and a half mark since my fiance was sent back to Mexico. I think that immigration lawyers are a sham, they just funnel off the paper work to thier assistant and take very little time with the files themselves, I think its easy money for them. We originally hired a lawyer because he was sent back on a exclusion order and we thought that may complicate things, now that the wonderful people of the forum have educated me I realize this is not a need for a lawyer. I think if you are doing an appeal or something more complicated it may be justified but otherwise CIC and this forum together give you way more than enough info to do it yourself and far less delays in my opinion. Personally I dont see the signature dates on the forms being an issue, and really they should have got it together to have you sign everything at once when the package was completed