Spousal Common-Law Inland Sponsorship – Is 28 Months Real? Processing Time Concerns (Feb 2025 Applicant)

[keyboat1]

Hey everyone, I just submitted my spousal/common-law inland sponsorship application on February 4, 2025, and I was shocked to see the processing time listed as 28 months on the IRCC website.

I used an immigration consultant and paid $2,300 CAD for their help with filling, gathering, and submitting the documents, plus the $1,290 PR fee. My PGWP expires in October 2026 (20 months from now), so I’m getting really stressed about what happens if my PR isn’t approved in time.

From what I’ve seen on this forum, most applications seem to take 3-6 months, not 28 months. Is IRCC actually taking that long for inland sponsorship, or are some applications still getting processed much faster?

If you’ve applied recently or have insight into real processing times, I’d love to hear your experiences! Any advice or reassurance would be really appreciated

 

[scylla]

Hey everyone, I just submitted my spousal/common-law inland sponsorship application on February 4, 2025, and I was shocked to see the processing time listed as 28 months on the IRCC website.

I used an immigration consultant and paid $2,300 CAD for their help with filling, gathering, and submitting the documents, plus the $1,290 PR fee. My PGWP expires in October 2026 (20 months from now), so I’m getting really stressed about what happens if my PR isn’t approved in time.

From what I’ve seen on this forum, most applications seem to take 3-6 months, not 28 months. Is IRCC actually taking that long for inland sponsorship, or are some applications still getting processed much faster?

If you’ve applied recently or have insight into real processing times, I’d love to hear your experiences! Any advice or reassurance would be really appreciated

I can't comment on processing times but you can apply for an OWP to continue working if processing takes too long. That part is easy.

 

[armoured]

Hey everyone, I just submitted my spousal/common-law inland sponsorship application on February 4, 2025, and I was shocked to see the processing time listed as 28 months on the IRCC website.
...
From what I’ve seen on this forum, most applications seem to take 3-6 months, not 28 months. Is IRCC actually taking that long for inland sponsorship, or are some applications still getting processed much faster?

You should check the recent tracker reports, I'm not aware of any ongoing slowdown.

The declared processing times jumped in the last couple months. We don't know why, yet at least.

The way they calculate is backward looking, and means when 80% of apps are finalized. I think it means the earliest month (during the period when they measure) for which that month's cohort hit the 80%. So this 28 months ago was ~October 2022.

So it is possible (perhaps even likely?) that this is a data quirk related to a backlog from the tail end of covid apps. Perhaps an internal push to finalize a bunch of apps that'd been held up. (It just changed from ~24 months as if they're working backwards).

But what it doesn't mean is that files being done now will take 28 months; can't know that yet. Best we can say is look through the average processing times for files from 2024 and hope things haven't changed much since then.

And watch if that announced processing time falls in the next few months back to a normal range.

 

[Tir13]

You should check the recent tracker reports, I'm not aware of any ongoing slowdown.

The declared processing times jumped in the last couple months. We don't know why, yet at least.

The way they calculate is backward looking, and means when 80% of apps are finalized. I think it means the earliest month (during the period when they measure) for which that month's cohort hit the 80%. So this 28 months ago was ~October 2022.

So it is possible (perhaps even likely?) that this is a data quirk related to a backlog from the tail end of covid apps. Perhaps an internal push to finalize a bunch of apps that'd been held up. (It just changed from ~24 months as if they're working backwards).

But what it doesn't mean is that files being done now will take 28 months; can't know that yet. Best we can say is look through the average processing times for files from 2024 and hope things haven't changed much since then.

And watch if that announced processing time falls in the next few months back to a normal range.

From what I read on the website, IRCC is now calculating it as Forward Processing Effective of May 2024.
That includes Inland Spousal Sponsorship Applications.

 

[armoured]

From what I read on the website, IRCC is now calculating it as Forward Processing Effective of May 2024.
That includes Inland Spousal Sponsorship Applications.

I've seen that text too. I don't think they've actually changed the methodology, but I can't say for certain.

Believe what you like. Again, there's no sign I'm aware of from recent apps that anything has changed to make it dramatically longer (save for Quebec apps).

 

[Tir13]

I've seen that text too. I don't think they've actually changed the methodology, but I can't say for certain.

Believe what you like. Again, there's no sign I'm aware of from recent apps that anything has changed to make it dramatically longer (save for Quebec apps).

I agree, Will know in due time I guess.

 

[armoured]

Again, there's no sign I'm aware of from recent apps that anything has changed to make it dramatically longer (save for Quebec apps).

A sort of clarification to this point: not aware of anything that's changed enough to explain the 24-28 month figures on the website the last two months.

There have been changes/annoucnments that could lead to files taking somewhat longer. Although personally I think it's not clear - the changes are mostly to other programs (student and temporary worker). That could mean more staff being dedicated to spousal; or it could mean a wave of new apps from students/TFWs trying to stay; etc.

My best guess? Not much change for 'normal' spousal apps. But it's only a guess.

 

[canuck78]

There does seem to be slightly slower processing times but it became ridiculously fast for a while. Seems to be returning to what it was around 2 years ago.

 

[keyboat1]

Any thoughts?