I think Msafiri has just nailed it right on the head. In addition to whatever the trigger list the CIC officer have to their avail, each officer, I bet, uses his own judgment. If I was an immigration officer reviewing two cases: one of an individual with high income, steady employment record (and not in a 7-Eleven shop but in industries like Oil and Gas, Banking etc), owning his own house, having kids go to school and producing school records for the entire period in review, scoring high marks for the English languish test, and the other being self-employed, renting aboard, etc., - it does not take a genius to say who would receive the RQ. I have 7 friends of mine who meets the criteria of the first individual I outlined above who have applied for their citizenship within the last 2 years, and guess what? All of them have received their citizenship with from 9 months to 13 months (in Calgary) with no RQ, as you can imagine.