A comment I google-d out to know when the slowness is shown by CIC what might be the reason , Its below
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A CIC staff member told me this at a public event - sometimes visa offices shift their focus for some time (several months?) towards other type of applications like PNP, CEC, etc. This happens in case the particular visa office hasn't achieved the "target" (they have no quotas per year, but they do have targets to be achieved for every category) of processing that category of applications in a particular period, which is not necessarily an yearly period. Accordingly, they suspend work on other type of applications until they have achieved their other targets.
If you create a similar chart as above for CEC, PNP, etc. at Buffalo, then you will find that office processing good volumes in the months of Aug, Sep and Oct in these categories. So, they will come back to FSW apps after they have achieved their targets - I hope they do not prolong this game beyond 2009.
I also think that due to the bad economic situation, CEC and PNP are being preferred by Canadian provinces and businesses, that may be why PNP and CEC targets are more critical right now.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Now as I heard people saying quota being over the year , How come FSW fasten up suddenly ( Getting PPR in 5 months - Few Cases I noticed and heard) and FSW also falls under Economic bracket . To me above historical comment with same situation make sense as I haven't heard any official announcement yet for CEC where Quota is over for the year.
Express entry on the cards ( To prepare ), Targets of year to be achieved for certain programmes - Can be the reason CEC slowed down . They would have deliberately halted processing anything for CEC for a while may be 2-3 months .
Rest CIC would better know what is the reason behind it , I am just trying to find out and speculate an adequate reasoning.