I wanted to post quickly in response to a lot of the discussion around timing.
I've seen a lot of variation with this -- sometimes as few as two weeks from sponsorship approval to PPR, right up to longer times like ours (sponsorship approval Feb 3, file created in Buffalo Apr 29, was NOT TOUCHED until Jul 17 (and even then, only barely), then actually examined Aug 16). I get these dates straight from the GCMS notes.
Yes, we did have a doc request that was processed quickly (about a month from request until PPR) and I'm sure if we hadn't had that doc request, we would have received PPR around the same time (Sep 9).
Basically, our file sat in Buffalo collecting dust for about 2.5 months, was opened long enough to make the computer record, closed, sat again collecting dust for 3.5 months, opened long enough to see that there was still a bit of time left before medicals expired, then closed for another month. Throughout the last half of August, it was examined several times, including having the interview waived. The doc request was initiated on Aug 30, mailed on Sep 9, rec'd on Sep 12.
The receipt of the documents was noted on our file on Oct 5.
So, simply, if they had all the documents required, they would have only spent about two weeks of actively looking at the file. We went to "in process" on Aug 19... so it would have been about 2 weeks from IP to PPR (if we leave out the doc req). That doesn't change the fact that we didn't see IP on e-Cas until about 7 months after Buffalo received the file.
According to the trackitt.com tracker, we were actually two days SHORTER than average, from beginning to end. While the locally maintained spreadsheet is great, I would encourage everyone to put their cases into this tracker as well: trackitt.com/canada-immigration-trackers/family-class -- it's a little easier to navigate and you get a comment thread just for your case... and you have a longer history (back to at least 2009) to draw on for averages.
