The GCMS notes indicate that the analyst's decision at CIO for eligibility was "Review Required". Is it a bad sign that he didn't recommend a passed status but a review required status for eligibility?
When the analyst is unable to make a decision, they defer it to the officer and make the recommendation as review required. It is then the officer who will make a decision. In most cases the officer will make a positive decision, but that depends on case by case basis.
Another thing that I noticed is that my FSW scores dropped significantly. It seems that no points from my work experience was added. The notes from the agent indicated that a review was required for employment. Here are the exact notes below, with key parts of concern included:
A11.2 Case Processing Agent Lock - in Date: 2018-02-20.... Having analyzed this applicant based on the documents submitted by and the information contained in the file, I make the following recommendation.
_______________________________________________________________________
Review Required R75: FSW Minimum Requirements - Review Required R76: Selection Criteria- FSW Points/ Funds: Review Required FSW points total: 59 (dropped from 72) Ready to Finalize RPRF: Complete
........... ........
Experience: Lock - in Date: 2018 - 02- 20 Primary Occupation NOC 2161.....
Employment histories (Review Required)
Letter confirms salary.... Letter confirms full/time employment... FSW Work: 0 year(s) 0 month(s) of 1 year.... Review Required CRS Foreign Work: 0 year(s) 0 month(s) of 3 year(s)- Review Required what does this mean? The work experience isn't 0 years. The analyst has not awarded you any points for the work experience. The analyst has deferred this to the officer, who will decide this. If your reference letters has all the details, and meets the requirements of the what IRCC asks, and also the jb duties in ref letter meet that of NOC no need to worry.
Settlement Funds: Review Required Family of 1 requires CAD 12,475 submitted bank letter and statements at the time of PR submission showing that I met the threshold amount but it was a US bank. The funds were not converted to CAD but remained as USD. Could this be what needs to be reviewed for conversion purposes? This usually happens as only officers make the conversion. IRCC does not go by day to day conversion, but has a conversion based on quarterly basis which is published by the Govt. of Canada. No need to worry about this at all.
Text: **** Agent Review*** Police Certificates R10 OK Criminality Decision Passed
Notes 3:.....
Review Type: Program Assistant.....I have this application based upon the documents submitted by the applicant... Principal Applicant Application Promoted: Existing UCI. What does this mean? This is that your application has been promoted to the next step, and the UCI is present, so no new UCI needs to be generated.
PA: Statutory details located in separate GCMS note Does this mean that only part of my GCMS notes were released to me? Is this your first time applying to IRCC, or have you applied for student / tourist visa before. if you have, then there will be 2 sets that IRCC will rely on.
Is it concerning that no specific reason was given by the analyst about the decision to request a review?
I would not be much concerned, just request another set of GCMS notes in a few weeks and see what progress has been made.