Your application appears to have met (and almost certainly did meet) the criteria for automated processing.
In contrast, it appears (and is highly likely) the application made by TinyHumanCA did not meet the criteria for automated processing.
Main difference is that for applications that do not meet the automated processing criteria, they are not "
in process" until an IRCC official, a human, opens the file. (Does not mean there is a problem, just that there is some element in the application the machine is not designed to process, not yet anyway; most of these applications are likely to be approved soon after being opened, albeit some will be highly complex and take longer.)
For applications that do not meet automated processing criteria, the date a human opens the file will establish:
-- the AOR date
-- the date a file for the application is opened in GCMS
-- the date processing (as defined by IRCC practice) begins
-- the date after which a call centre agent will be able to see the application file in GCMS
-- the date after which an applicant should be able to "link" the application (emphasis on should since anecdotal reporting suggests quite a lot of unevenness in when applications can be linked).
Again, most of these are likely to be approved soon after being opened (once they are "
in process").
As of the day that
@TinyHumanCA communicated with the IRCC call centre, applications made after October 14 were still in the queue of applications waiting
to be opened (by a human) for these types of applications (those not meeting automated processing criteria).
Given the currently posted processing times by IRCC it is clear that most PR card applications, at least currently, do meet the criteria for automated processing, so most PRs applying for a PR card are likely to have their applications approved within four to five weeks (pursuant to processing times posted for recent months). It is worth noting that a year ago, before the posted processing times indicated most applications were benefitting from automated processing, here in this forum there were numerous anecdotal reports of near immediate approval (indicating not just automated processing but an automated decision approving the application); later, early this year the posted processing times abruptly dropped, as I discussed in a topic titled "
Automated Decision-Making -- "Advanced Analytics" -- and AI, yeah that AI, so maybe some GOTCHA" this past March:
For PR card applications, IRCC has not publicized the automated processing procedure much, so we do not know many details beyond what is most likely similar to the automated processing structure IRCC has publicized in regards to other types of applications (some of this goes back five or six years now to published details about early projects implementing automated processing, which even included automated decision-making allowing some applications to be approved with no human assessment or review). But the transition from near immediate and less than two week approvals (posted processing times actually dropped to less than two weeks early this year), to the four to five week processing times seen over recent months, strongly suggest there is a human review procedure in the automated processing of PR cards. Still, even with that, this is nearly half the processing time of the fastest times for applications that do not meet the criteria for automated processing.
In any event, there is a far more in-depth discussion about automated processing in the topic titled "
Automated Decision-Making -- "Advanced Analytics" -- and AI, yeah that AI, so maybe some GOTCHA"
