Montreal RQ- I have been told 37 months when called center. other opinions, new?
- Thread starter flybest1
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flybest1 said:
I posted this previously to another forum. I post it here because it shows the full gamut of stock responses CIC call centre agents can offer when discussing RQ timelines.
I called the Helpline yesterday [April] to inquire about Montréal RQ processing times. Here is my best transcription of the discussion I had with an agent named "Alex":
Alex: There is no timeline for RQs. If an application is no longer deemed "standard", there is no timeline.
Me: I know there's no official timeline, but does that mean that I should expect to wait indefinitely? Like I could wait for a decade and not know if anything's wrong?
Alex: Oh no no no. Not a decade. Probably more like 35-37 months from the receipt of your application.
Me: Some other agents have quoted 48 months just for RQ processing, are you saying that that's inaccurate?
Alex: 48 months was just something weird happening for awhile, mostly relating to the GTA. [I wish I knew more about this explanation...]
Me: So where is the 35-37 month quote coming from?
Alex: What?
Me: Is it from an Operation Bulletin or a publicly accessible document? Is it an official service standard?
Alex: No, it's really just something internal...
Me: From internal CIC emails or something?
Alex: Yeah...
Me: So I can't know where it's coming from?
Alex: Not really.
Me: But you think 35-37 months.
Alex: Yeah. Montreal's really probably more like 37.
3 years sounds better than 4 years and longer, but there is no accountability for these numbers and I don't think we should put much faith in them. These quotes do not seem to be based on staffing levels, the current rate of RQ processing rate or any official departmental or governmental goal. My instinct is that they are quoting 35-37 months because a) 48 months just for RQ processing was getting some bad press and b) 36 months for total citizenship application processing time has generally been ruled the limit of a "reasonable" wait time in federal mandamus suits.
look4d said:
As I said before, there is no CIC accountability for these numbers, so I doubt the wisdom of putting faith in them. My instinct is that they are arbitrary numbers quoted to persistent clients as per internal CIC instruction, rather than provide a true estimation.
But, to answer your question, I went to some pains to clarify this point with the agent (receipt of application vs. receipt of RQ response), though perhaps I didn't highlight it as much as I should have in my rough transcription:
eileenf said:
