My application hadn't received any updates since the medicals were cleared. This morning I received an update. No accompanying email was sent for it however.
The background check status now reads: "We are processing your background check".
Discussion about partner countries and information sharing was abuzz around somewhere in this thread. I am not sure if travel history and current residence mismatch from the country of origin have any nontrivial impact on finalizing the application.
The well known MyImmiTracker shows applications where country of residence and origin are different, and there are cases that got through quickly and those that were made to wait. This seems to indicate that this mismatch might trigger a couple of more checks here and there, but does not delay the application as a rule.
But if these are real "partners", wouldn't there be an arrangement of sorts which would actually allow processing the travel history or residence of applicants in these countries, faster? I mean that's the whole point of being an ally country -- to make things easy
But one can only speculate.