if you enter:
the Client ID number as the identification type for the sponsor (which is found on the sponsorship approval letter), the last name of the sponsor, the date of birth of the sponsor, and the country of birth of the sponsor, you should get two columns under the "sponsorship application(s)" heading: "Sponsorship Application Status" and "Permanent Residence Application Status." I suspect those say, "Decision Made" and "Application Received," respectively, for your case. You can click on both of those statuses and get more detailed information.
if you then log out and enter all the above for yourself, the principal applicant, you would just get to see the "Permanent Residence Application Status" part only. So it's not really a big deal.
But if you want to log in as the PA, you would not be able to enter in *your* details, but his or her Client ID. The information needs to be consistent in that regard.
If you have any previous dealings with CIC, you already have a Client ID. If not, you can either just email Buffalo and see if they issue you an AOR (yes, it goes to the PA unlike the sponsorship approval) and get the Client ID that way. As far as the file number, from what I hear, CPCM has actually started including this on the sponsorship approvals. In my experience, the file number + PA's details gives the same info as Client ID + PA's details. Then there's that whole thing about e-CAS not being a big help anyway........
