Hi,
Give yourself 3weeks.
My Timeline
Applied Online: 11/05/2017, got the Application number same day.
Passport request: 11/18/2017
Passport sent: 11/19/2017
Passport received by Ottawa: 11/21/2017.
Return tracker did not activate till date. I called Cic and they very politely informed me expect delays. This is holiday reason. I questioned back asking how long, she said this an estimate can be more or less, keep 3weeks from the day your passport was received.I informed her my reason of travel is not vacation but to attend my ailing mother surgery. She then said, in this case you can send out instruction for Urgent Processing. She emailed me with information on how to proceed.
I yesterday followed the instruction and submitted a case specific request for urgent processing with Letter of explanation and Doctors letter.
In short if we see the trend on how they are handling applications I feel it will be 10th or + by the time I get my passport.
If you get any update OR your tracker gets activated please
Thanks