As I understand, as soon as they touch a file, things can go really fast. 90% of time files are just waiting for an officer to proceed another step and nothing more. I'm sure that basically things like eligibility check doesn't take longer than a couple of working days for an officer. The biggest problem is that there are thousands of files to be processed, hence the normal process is not like MEP - Criminality - eligibility - review - security - decision, but most likely MEP - (waiting to be picked up) - criminality - (waiting to be picked up) - eligibility recommended passed - (waiting to be picked up) - eligibility passed - criminality initiated - (waiting to be picked up) - criminality passed - (waiting to be picked up) - file approved