I am glad i could be of help. I hope patience gets you through. Just keep one thing in mind that every now and then (perhaps once a month) sending a reminder email to CIC asking for status would help. I have seen cases in which some one applied, didn't hear from CIC for say 5 months, didn't try communicating themselves at all as well. Then when they emailed, CIC responded that their application has been refused because they didn't respond to CIC's email (for medical or for some additional docs, whatever). Some how that email was missed presumably and CIC doesn't give people a chance to prove that. So just stay cautious on that.
The processing centers vary from country to country. For e.g. in Pakistan all permanent resident visa applications (FSW's, PNPs etc. are processed via London office or something. I am not sure what is the case in India. But as a general rule all temp resident visa types (work permits, study permits and visit visas) are processed together at one location among which study visa has the highest priority, then visit visa and finally comes work permit. I have seen work permits getting dramatically slow response when study admission are at their peaks e.g. between april and august for the sept intake session each year.
Also there are at least some parts of processing which might be done centrally in Canada. These are just speculations based upon some individual experiences where some occasional info explained some steps in the visa processing. Otherwise officially speaking CIC hasn't explained any of these things formally.
Lastly, work permits were specially affected since the period around march-april this year. There were several reasons other than PAFSCO strike i.e. temp work permit reforms implemented in April (they cancelled accelerated LMO's, revoked the 15% leverage employers had to pay a foreign work permit holder slightly less than a Canadian equivalent, tightened some other policies etc.). One major issue in news those days was the hype of Royal bank of Canada where they tried replacing some 45 jobs held by Canadians with temp foreign workers. So Canadians in general started viewing twp as a means to steal their jobs. This was not just an opinion. This kind of response was sent to my employer via MP office in Ottawa from CIC some time in june that "viewing the current criticism in media regarding twp stealing canadian jobs, the process is subject to more scrutiny and hence more time"
So you can imagine work permits to be under some special delay in those times. Still things have gotten much better now. I have seen at least 2-3 work permits in Pakistan being approved with in 2 months or so (from the time of application to CIC till receiving stamped passports back) since july. So hopefully the back log due to PAFSCO strike is the only cause now and other hurdles are fixed.
All the very best.
foruaks said:
Thanks fkl for your valuable information. Looking at it, I now feel that it makes sense to be patient and wait for my turn. There are lot others on the New Delhi thread who too are waiting. Infact, it seemed at one point of time that paper applications were getting proper responses and also were getting processed. In some cases, the Chandigarh Embassy which always used to be slow, suddenly took pace and started processing visa. Just for my knowledge sake, do they process FSW, PNP and WP visas at the same time or there are different officers to process different types of visas? The reason I ask you is because, I could see lots of FSW applicants getting Visas after the strike, while the WP applicants thread seem to be stale. But anyways, thanks for your help and insight on the process. This is a tough time for everyone like me who are waiting for Visas and have resigned from their earlier organizations under the hope of working in Canada.
As for your earlier question, my lawyer applied for my Work Permit. I didn't do it myself. And yes, he did submitted the "Use of representative" form along with the application.