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Did hiring more workers in Sidney office make spousal sponsorship any faster?

HopefulLegend

Star Member
May 21, 2021
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The minister talked about speeding up the spousal sponsorship process in March this year as they hired 62 new workers. Has this change impacted outland application process speed in any real way though? Isn't the vast majority of the application's processing done in the principal applicant's home country? So what's the use of hiring more people within the SIdney office? Don't we need more people in the overseas offices (for example like NDVO)?

Here's the article talking about this change: https://www.cicnews.com/2021/03/canada-expanding-sydney-office-to-expedite-family-reunion-0317396.html#gs.407cz3
 
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MJSPARV

Hero Member
Sep 17, 2020
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I suspect from reading here it at the very least got people an AOR faster if you look at timelines for people submitted mid-2020 versus early 2021. I believe SA happens Sydney as well. Even if it were just AOR in Sydney, it should still speed things up as the VOs can't work on a file until it's sent there.
 

MJSPARV

Hero Member
Sep 17, 2020
405
251
I suspect from reading here it at the very least got people an AOR faster if you look at timelines for people submitted mid-2020 versus early 2021. I believe SA happens Sydney as well. Even if it were just AOR in Sydney, it should still speed things up as the VOs can't work on a file until it's sent there.
Assuming of course that the receiving VO doesn't have major issues with backlog due to covid and/of isn't working etc. In that case then speeding through Sydney wouldn't make much difference I'd guess
 

HopefulLegend

Star Member
May 21, 2021
177
44
Assuming of course that the receiving VO doesn't have major issues with backlog due to covid and/of isn't working etc. In that case then speeding through Sydney wouldn't make much difference I'd guess
Yeah, this is exactly what I'm thinking. The vast bulk of the work (or atleast from what I understand) is done at the PA's VO anyway, so I'm genuinely not sure how this really helps with anything. AOR1 and Sponsor Approval are such early stage events that it hardly matters I'm thinking?

On a side note, the officers that work at foreign VOs, are they Canadians that are working abroad? Or does Canada actually hire local people from the country where the VO is based?
 

Fang_89

Star Member
Sep 22, 2020
105
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I think the very first step, with the AOR has been sped up. We sent our application last October and took nearly 6 months to get an AOR. I believe applicants now get it within a month. I'm not sure if this affects the entire processing time, but at least it spares you 6 months of agony....
 
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canuck78

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Jun 18, 2017
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Yeah, this is exactly what I'm thinking. The vast bulk of the work (or atleast from what I understand) is done at the PA's VO anyway, so I'm genuinely not sure how this really helps with anything. AOR1 and Sponsor Approval are such early stage events that it hardly matters I'm thinking?

On a side note, the officers that work at foreign VOs, are they Canadians that are working abroad? Or does Canada actually hire local people from the country where the VO is based?
Employees are both local and from Canada.
 

Dimilitantey

Hero Member
May 6, 2021
387
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IKR, this is actually what I been thinking all year just ddnt know there were others who second this. I really don't know how it sped things up because regardless of when the AOR or SA comes it still takes long infact longer than usual if not for most cases for my country's VO.

Regarding the employees to I had wondered same, but I do belive most of them are locals because the currency and benefits would be less compared to using Canadians. With how slow things are, at times you need to even forget you applied for any PR.

But am just going to end saying that, the length of the process is on the VO and if you check other platforms of different countries you can tell things are not as slow as compared to other countries(always wondering if there are some more beneficial countriesthan others). It's just frustrating and at times wish some of these IRCC personnel's could see the comments to work things out.
 

Dimilitantey

Hero Member
May 6, 2021
387
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I think the very first step, with the AOR has been sped up. We sent our application last October and took nearly 6 months to get an AOR. I believe applicants now get it within a month. I'm not sure if this affects the entire processing time, but at least it spares you 6 months of agony....
You definitely right, but know that there are still several cases of last year which still haven't even been opened or even sent AOR or SA. I believe the new recruits and new applications are easier to be cleared as they are easier to attend to compared to files the new recruits might have come to meet. Just commenting from my work experience(might not be relevant though but new recruits are normally allowed to touch files assigned to them only) So am sure files are being sped up but those before the new recruits are just to keep fingers crossed and keep praying. And like H said only for the CPC in Canada.

However, I agree with you seeing how it sorta moving fast for others it's aswell ain't for others of last year even.
 

HopefulLegend

Star Member
May 21, 2021
177
44
IKR, this is actually what I been thinking all year just ddnt know there were others who second this. I really don't know how it sped things up because regardless of when the AOR or SA comes it still takes long infact longer than usual if not for most cases for my country's VO.

Regarding the employees to I had wondered same, but I do belive most of them are locals because the currency and benefits would be less compared to using Canadians. With how slow things are, at times you need to even forget you applied for any PR.

But am just going to end saying that, the length of the process is on the VO and if you check other platforms of different countries you can tell things are not as slow as compared to other countries(always wondering if there are some more beneficial countriesthan others). It's just frustrating and at times wish some of these IRCC personnel's could see the comments to work things out.
Yeah. What really needs to happen is an increase in the staff that works at these overseas VOs. Literally 20-30% of the entire procedure appears to be done in Sydney, but the remaining in the overseas VO. My knowledge is fairly rudimentary though - @armoured do you have any insight or knowledge on the inner workings of this at all?
 

Fang_89

Star Member
Sep 22, 2020
105
49
You definitely right, but know that there are still several cases of last year which still haven't even been opened or even sent AOR or SA. I believe the new recruits and new applications are easier to be cleared as they are easier to attend to compared to files the new recruits might have come to meet. Just commenting from my work experience(might not be relevant though but new recruits are normally allowed to touch files assigned to them only) So am sure files are being sped up but those before the new recruits are just to keep fingers crossed and keep praying. And like H said only for the CPC in Canada.

However, I agree with you seeing how it sorta moving fast for others it's aswell ain't for others of last year even.
My understanding is that the people working there are opening files and doing a first quick check to ensure everything is there and easy to go through. If there are complicated files (Hard to read, too much extra material that needs to be filtered out, inconsistent material that requires extra reading, documents that come in booklet form that are not easy to scan/photocopy, etc...) then there's always a chance they put it aside for another day and instead focus on some easier/faster files.

I'm not 100% sure they do that, but it wouldn't surprise me. It's unfortunate, but it does show that preparation and the way you prepare are both important when sending files.
 

armoured

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Feb 1, 2015
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Yeah. What really needs to happen is an increase in the staff that works at these overseas VOs. Literally 20-30% of the entire procedure appears to be done in Sydney, but the remaining in the overseas VO. My knowledge is fairly rudimentary though - @armoured do you have any insight or knowledge on the inner workings of this at all?
I have no insider knowledge on this.

But first: it's pretty clear that adding the staff in Sydney both sped things up for those at the early stages, and seems to have mostly cleared out the enormous backlog (given that from roughly March to October, AOR1s were just trickling out). Yes, there are a few files that have not received AOR - but very few (and who knows with those, perhaps sent back or something else happened). But basically the backlog has been cleared.

Going forward: I don't know what they'll do going forward. But I think just saying only 20% is done in Sydney and everything else is overseas where the real problems and delays are (with implication that staff needs to be hired in those offices) - it makes the assumption that IRCC's systems are not going to change and are still working with paper files as if it were 1995 or something.

Clearly IRCC wants to move to more digitisation where the physical location of the paper file is much less important - witness sending a lot of files to Beijing for some type of processing. Perhaps Sydney will take on more of the early stage analysis, maybe they'll take on more than 'just scanning', maybe they'll come up with a 'fast' procedure for simple files and the like. Maybe they'll stop moving the physical files anywhere at all and this means Sydney has to be beefed up (staff and physical space for archiving). Maybe they'll change the scanning process to include much more information and analysis and more usable digital files - but I don't know. In a world where the physical process has become desktop and phsyical files are dealt with as little as possible, a lot becomes redundant. (I personally would guess they'll move to a mostly digital process for family sponsorship in 1-5 years, but that they've accepted it can't be all digital).

As it is now, I suspect that only two people really "consult" the physical file in any depth - Sydney when scanning and checking for completeness, and the examining officer. But then another five-to-ten fold people are touching it and physically moving it during the process (not very efficient but made sense when it really was mostly paper processes, i.e. ten to twenty-five years ago, and everyone involved had to look at the physical file).

So going forward: I expect we'll see lots of little changes that seem odd at first that may mean more stuff happening in Sydney. And that may or may not mean more stuff in remote offices, or more staff, but it won't be one-to-one where applicants are from (leaving aside that quite a lot of files are mostly processed in Canada even now). Because it just doesn't matter for a lot of cases where the staff are. (Some of the changes with notifications around AOR1 - SA, bio, medical - hint at this, they seem to have decided that these don't need to be all at once, they're moving from more serial processing to more being done in parallel)

The other point is that lots of steps are done by outsiders like security checks and IRCC has little control - so it doesn't mean all files will be magically quicker. Countries that have more security issues and fraud will still take longer.

Plus there are still backlogs and logjams in procedures - interviews being the most notable right now. The transition to doing remote/virtual interviews has not been smooth or scaleable, and they must have an enormous backlog of those.
 

Dimilitantey

Hero Member
May 6, 2021
387
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My understanding is that the people working there are opening files and doing a first quick check to ensure everything is there and easy to go through. If there are complicated files (Hard to read, too much extra material that needs to be filtered out, inconsistent material that requires extra reading, documents that come in booklet form that are not easy to scan/photocopy, etc...) then there's always a chance they put it aside for another day and instead focus on some easier/faster files.

I'm not 100% sure they do that, but it wouldn't surprise me. It's unfortunate, but it does show that preparation and the way you prepare are both important when sending files.
Exactly how I believe it goes there. And trust me people could get already tired by looking at stacks of files. I seen people skip files at my workplace in the past in a logistics department. There could be backlog of older files and only because pple could be selective of the files. I don't think anyone can explain how exactly they process the files unless an employee or immi lawyer in touch with them.

I read somewhere about them having longer cases because of complications etc. Personally I don't think that is always the case because, myself as well as others were only sent our first response after sending webfoms or emails implying that the files are definitely sitting there whilst they attending to recent files upfront and that's why this year's processes could be faster. Infact all my updates were only after I contacted making me doubt what exactly the case it. At times you keep wondering what is happening. with it.

However this could not be the case to. As we all agree in this platform that most of the delays is by the VO's and that's where the focus should be. From the looks of things it isn't the focus of IRCC in anyway so I would just urge most people to be strong and hold it in there once there is a doubt just contact IRCC. Best thing to do is contact your VO via webform, email or order gcms notes.
 

armoured

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Feb 1, 2015
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Exactly how I believe it goes there. And trust me people could get already tired by looking at stacks of files. I seen people skip files at my workplace in the past in a logistics department. There could be backlog of older files and only because pple could be selective of the files. I don't think anyone can explain how exactly they process the files unless an employee or immi lawyer in touch with them.

I read somewhere about them having longer cases because of complications etc. Personally I don't think that is always the case because, myself as well as others were only sent our first response after sending webfoms or emails implying that the files are definitely sitting there whilst they attending to recent files upfront and that's why this year's processes could be faster.
To me it is quite clear that they had a very large backlog - quite possibly an enormous series of rooms and closets - where they were sticking files between roughly march and october last year. Think big rooms stacked floor to ceiling in no particular order (because they didn't think it would last so long and they just kept adding to it).

And at some point - roughly november - they "rebooted" by segregating and processing new files, probably with an entirely separate team and maybe even a different floor or temporary space.

Over the last few months, AOR/initial processing has roughly returned to the not-quite first-in-first-out system they had before the start of covid. I say roughly because of course they still had some backlog files coming out, and some (new) files have errors or other issues that make them more challenging. (But again, this is roughly what was happening before covid - most new files were done in 30-90 days)
 

Dimilitantey

Hero Member
May 6, 2021
387
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To me it is quite clear that they had a very large backlog - quite possibly an enormous series of rooms and closets - where they were sticking files between roughly march and october last year. Think big rooms stacked floor to ceiling in no particular order (because they didn't think it would last so long and they just kept adding to it).

And at some point - roughly november - they "rebooted" by segregating and processing new files, probably with an entirely separate team and maybe even a different floor or temporary space.

Over the last few months, AOR/initial processing has roughly returned to the not-quite first-in-first-out system they had before the start of covid. I say roughly because of course they still had some backlog files coming out, and some (new) files have errors or other issues that make them more challenging. (But again, this is roughly what was happening before covid - most new files were done in 30-90 days)
For sure about the back logs no 2 ways about that. This info was made very clear to all applicants via IRCC websites and social media platforms. I believe your point is true and similar to mine bt just in different words based from your experience or knowledge. Nice one

Based from my current processing, i would suggest people to either contact IRCC for updates rather than to keep thinking they are not working or things are slow or even complicated. Like I said from my experience and others I have been in contact with. Most cases were updated only after a contact was made or an MP involved.