Good news! I sent an email around a month ago about the change of processing times on their website. They responded today -
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Dear Applicant,
The processing time is calculated from the date the complete application for sponsorship was received at the Case Processing Center in Mississauga to the date the final decision was entered by the Visa Office. The posted processing times are based on the time required to process 80% of the cases over a period of 12 months and are updated quarterly. Therefore, they are historical processing times that may not accurately reflect current processing times when a significant occurrence has impacted the regular flow of processing.
In February 2014, the Family Class caseload from Islamabad was transferred to London. At the time of transfer, the processing time in Islamabad was 32 months. This was, therefore, an already significantly aged caseload. The files from the large inventory received from Islamabad formed the large majority of cases processed by London in 2014. Accordingly, as these aged files were finalized in London, the time elapsed since the applications were initially submitted had a major impact on the calculation of the London processing times, even though they had been in London only for a few months.
As the posted processing time is historical and has been impacted by a specific invent – the transfer of an aged inventory – it does not accurately reflect the current processing time experienced by new applications received in London. To give you a better sense of the expected processing time for new Family Class applications received in London, we are currently putting into active processing the applications received in London from May to July 2014.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The subject line of this email and the initials included in the subject line are essential to avoid delays in processing requests and responses. Please include the initials written in the subject line of this email, in all future correspondence with us. For email communication, please use the “Reply to Sender” option of your email software which will keep the subject line intact in your response. For postal communication, please include these initials on the envelope, and highlight prominently on the cover letter.
