I am beginning to suspect it depends on whose desk it lands on. Some processors are fast, some are not, and if your application is a little more complicated it might get put into the "difficult" pile to be sorted out later?
It's hard to know from the outside how these things work. I work in a different ministry, and step one with a file is basically data entry, followed by contacting the client. If the file is complex, it might take a lot longer at later stages, but not at the initial stage. I would think the immigration agents processing citizenship files are probably assigned batches of files, and if they have an inventory of complex files they are already working on, they might not get to the new ones for a few weeks. Or they might be on vacation, or sick leave, or get promoted, or transferred to fix Phoenix... you never know!
If vacation, promotion, or transfer is causing the delay in processing applications then I see no reason why they increased the fee to $630.
I'm talking more about the variance in times for people getting AOR. But as for general delays, it definitely shouldn't take a year, and the additional revenues from fees should be (should have been!) used to hire more people to process more applications more quickly. The processing times are absurd.
What could be the reason for delay in "IN PROCESS STATUS" after AOR?
Right. Could be they are buffering up enough applications for each processing center and will flush it out in one go.
