This post is for both applicants in the SIR, and those that it appears they may not be in the SIR.
Those applicants not in the SIR:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2016/ob624.asp 1 Background:
Reducing overall processing times and improving client service for spouses and common-law partners of Canadian citizens and permanent residents is a key priority of the Department and IRCC has therefore introduced measures to significantly reduce the existing spousal inventory.
These inventory reduction efforts will be supported by four factors:
- the Department’s renewed focus and priority on reuniting families;
- increased levels space in 2016 to facilitate the admission of more spouses and common-law partners for permanent residence to finalize existing cases;
- the expectation of sufficient level space levels in 2017 to continue eliminating inventory early in the year and to avoid the accumulation of new processing inventories; and
- supplementary funding of $25M to the overall processing network this fiscal year to reduce processing times.
These factors, combined with targeted processing efforts to reduce existing inventory, are expected to help move the Department to a more manageable spousal inventory which will support improved processing times.
Effective file management will be key to ensuring that applications which are well documented, complete, have valid key documents, and which are identified as straightforward are finalized as expeditiously as possible.
This tells me they plan to continue the activity into the new year, and this may be the new norm. That said, by my maths, there should be another wave of documentation requests in the coming days!
Those applicants in the SIR:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2016/ob624.asp 3 Streamlined processing of straightforward cases:
In order to allow for a more effective processing, in-Canada spousal applications already in the inventory will be pre-assessed to identify applications which are straightforward and may be streamlined, and which applications require a closer review.
Processing of the SCLPC applications in the inventory, other than those already referred to local offices for closer review, will be conducted by CPR. Cases already referred to local offices will be processed using usual procedures. In all applications, officers will ensure that an integrated search is performed as per normal procedures, with special attention to potential excluded relationships.
Cases may be referred to local offices if further review or an interview is required, as per section 5.34 of chapter IP-8.
This tells me that they are still diverting cases to local VO's. Which is true, because that's where your PR will be issued. That said, they went on to discuss the QA process in the same document. So, you may see the "closer review required". It just means it's been sent to a local VO. Could be for QA, could be for interview. In either case, they did state that they would use the entire network to share the load and process the cases as fast as possible to bring the inventory to more manageable levels (as stated above).