This is incredibly sad and scary. What a complete waste of time, effort, and resources. This is a wake up call to everyone to apply for GCMS notes after 4+ months, no matter how confident you are about your application (I think it even makes sense to apply for it multiple times).
Here is my question though. If he was rejected due to Security screening as some have speculated above, do you think it would have shown up on the GCMS notes? As far as I understand, the Security portions are usually redacted. Moreover, what can really be done from the applicant's side to fix Security issues? I wish he would give us more insight into why his application was rejected once he cools down, as this would be immensely helpful to the community.
This is also a prime exhibit of why it makes me furious when call centre agents don't give proper answers and ask us to just look at the online application status, which is close to freaking useless. IRCC should really be more transparent about the status updates for each stage of the application. Not only will this make the applicants less anxious (and more proactive about fixing issues/sending missing documents), it will also greatly reduce the number of people calling the call centre purely for status updates. As for me, I am going to increase my frequency of calls to once every fortnight and will keep badgering them until they give me specific updates. I don't care if the agents are frustrated by the same questions, it's our livelihood that's on the line. Maybe I'll order GCMS every month too. It's a small price to pay to avoid any surprises.
@caipsnotes What are some steps an applicant can proactively take to avoid heartbreaks like this (assuming they have filled out the application sincerely and to the best of their knowledge) ?
