Ok, here is my take,
Citizenship grants had been ramping up for a while, and they peaked in 2019 with over 250k grants. In spite of COVID, they still processed 110k in 2020. This year has sadly been even slower. From Dec 2020 when online tests started to August 31st 2021, only 56k applications have been finalized (they have not published data for September or October).
Let’s assume that they receive around 200 -250k applications per year. Indeed, that means that most of the applications they have received since March 2020 have not been finalized. As such, it is possible that those “newer” applications that we have heard of that have been completed quickly may only be a small minority. This does NOT change the fact that they should be focusing on clearing the backlog first instead of processing newer applications.
This response from the local office does not provide insight into some of the abnormally long delays we have seen. Take my case, my in-person test was cancelled. IRCC clearly stated in November 2020 that applicants who had their tests cancelled would go first. And yet, it took over 16 months between the date my test was cancelled to when I was finally able to take it online. I’ve been following info on the CIMM reports. I estimate that around 100,000 people were called to take the online test before I was finally called. Then, for my physical presence, the internal report on my travels was completed on March 12th 2020. And yet, I only received the request for additional evidence on October 22nd 2021, more than 19 months later. There is clearly something missing in the way they choose and prioritize which files to work on.
My feeling is that they are simply processing everything at the same time, and now the queues for different parts of the process are huge with both newer and older applications mixed. Obviously, I cannot prove this 100%, and we need IRCC to be more transparent (which is precisely my point and why I feel there is more to it than that short answer they gave).
