If this is true it would be a complete bullshit ! If calling too many times would cause an application delay they should warn us. They should say caliing too often and defining what is too often would cause complaints and therefore delays in your application.
Maybe the delay has nothing to do with IRCC practices but rather is KARMA. Some kind of
what-goes-round-comes-round perhaps.
Sometimes people do get what they deserve. Not sure how it is that
what-goes-round-comes-round actually works, but I can understand the frustration an immigrant has when he only has a fifteen minute break from his job to make a call to the help centre to ask an important question BUT cannot get through because
lots of worrying people are clogging up the phone lines calling again and again to ask, like spoiled kids in the back seat of the car, "
are we there yet?" (As in, is my application in the local office? when will I be scheduled for the test? when will I be scheduled for the oath? and so on.)
Should I call them to make sure they haven't sent the invite and I won't miss the oath? Lots of worrying people might, and this could happen at every stage of the application!
"Lots of worrying people might . . . "
Especially if they read and are swayed by a climate of obsessive timeline auditors exaggerating atypical anomalies, as is all too pervasive in forums like this.
Note: the overwhelming vast majority of applicants will timely get all notices so long as they have appropriately provided IRCC with accurate, efficacious contact information, and they periodically check eCas. In contrast, the vast majority of communication failures derive from the client's end; some of these are unavoidable, yes, like the client whose circumstances compel changing address multiple times or the applicant whose circumstances compel frequent travel (noting that even travel within Canada, such as for work, can cause problems getting timely notice). So sure, it is prudent for clients/applicants with contact information hurdles to exercise extra caution and sometimes make follow-up inquiries. The rest, the vast majority, can relax, answer the phone, check the mailbox, monitor eCas, AND RELAX while WAITING.
A friend of mine had the same experience as OP last week. He mentioned that he would call the call centre twice a week and was told that he has been calling too much and the processing time is 12 months so he should wait. I wonder if there are some new instructions given to the call centre agents to tell the applicants who have been calling again and again.
If this, and other reports suggesting call centre agents pushing back some when dealing with frequent callers, is true, that suggests there is indeed a large number of applicants calling the help centre all too often, all too frequently. Crazy. Really fffd up crazy.
Every time a client's file is accessed that MUST be recorded (perhaps it does not happen, but at the least that is standard procedure). So every time a client calls the help centre and asks for specific information about his or her own case, the fact of the inquiry is logged into the client's file. For the client who is calling every month, let alone every two weeks, IT WILL BE OBVIOUS, it will be readily noticed by the processing agent AND Citizenship Officer who eventually is reviewing the application and making decisions. This should have NO substantive impact. This has no direct effect on the applicant's qualifications. BUT processing agents and Citizenship Officers are curious people, trained to be curious. Wonder tends to invite questions, and questions tend to lead to inquiries, and inquiries risk sitting in a queue for that inquiry to be done thus risking delays, and inquiries also increase the risk of inviting suspicion . . . easy to see where that line of falling dominoes goes. Not where the applicant prefers.
Perhaps it is merely total coincidence that a high percentage of those who report frequent calls and ATIP/GCMS requests are also reporting , in the forum, problems in their case. Perhaps.
Or KARMA, whatever that is, however it works.
