Hi Elyxandria,
I applied for a Bridging Work Permit and it was refused on the account they did not have an application for PR despite the fact that I had submitted it a month before.
I called CIC and the person with whom I spoke with explained that I world have to have received the AOR in order to apply for the BWP. The XEP does not mean they have started to process or verify. They will issue the AOR after they have verified that the paperwork is in order to start being processed.
On this note, I read somewhere in this forum that some people have received two AOR: one for the XEP and the other for the EP. I believe this is no longer the case and the AOR is only being issued when one gets his/her application verified and ready for processing.
Check if your AOR specifically refers to the EP and, if it does, you should contact CIC (reporting a technical issue with the updates on your myCIC page).
Cheers