While I agree with rjessome's post, the general feel/message seems to be that everything -- except for how long it takes them to evaluate the relationship and do the background checks, as those are independent variables -- is dependent on how complete a package is. How well the applicant has prepared it, etc.
I think what rots me about this is that even that is not enough to ensure a smooth processing. Many people look at the timelines and when they get through in 4-5 months, they say, "Oh, well we had a very complete package, that's why". We had everything together; we spent SEVERAL months just getting things together, and then a couple months just going over it again, doublechecking things with people, and having our consultant (who's great) go over all of it again before finally sending it. Everything was there. This is after (at the time) over 3 years of us TRYING to get to this point and not being able to, because of the thousands of dollars involved, my health problems, and string after frustrating string of bad luck and family emergencies.
And what happened? Incompetence. Buffalo somehow "misplaces" my police check -- something that took us hundreds of dollars (that we don't have now...) and nearly 3 months to get -- and we don't even get TOLD. Standard procedure is to wait for communication from Buffalo -- we got none. If not for CAIPS notes -- which we wouldn't have known about if not for these forums -- we'd STILL be in the dark to this day. Yes, things happen; they're only human. But they're humans being paid to do a job in which they have other humans' futures in their hands. It's just a slip of paper that was WITH everything else. And not only did it go missing, but they didn't even tell us. We don't even have official proof that an IA was even physically mailed out to us; all we have are the CAIPS notes.
What gets better is that we actually contacted them 3 times (twice by my consultant in December, once by ourselves in March), specifically SAYING we never got any correspondence and asking if anything was needed/missing, just in case (because I'm paranoid). We know they got it because they updated my notes with my email address -- before that, the only direct email address contact we gave them was our consultant's. But no reply? No "oh hey, you know what -- something IS missing from your file and holding things up". Nothing. This when they noted in my CAIPS notes back in December, just a day after sending my AOR, that they thought they didn't have that police check.
And as it stands now, while I often see Buffalo replying to others' enquiries and emails, my consultant has sent them several since April 28 -- even to their program manager directly -- and has yet to receive even one reply. I haven't received anything from then since the initial canned "You should have gotten an IA, and no we don't have records of your police check" response on April 28. Normally it'd be fine to just assume everything's normal if Buffalo's silent (they'll contact you if they need something, right? right?), but we did that once already and look where that got us.
... I'm sorry about this rant. I'm just tired of the BS and runarounds, and seeing everyone always say that if you put in your best effort with your application, all i's dotted and t's crossed, you'll be fine... is just too frustrating at this point. I guess my point is that while I agree with the general message of "Do your application the best you can", I don't agree that that's enough; you have to be damn lucky that whoever handles your file actually knows what they're doing, and that Buffalo actually gives a damn to tell you when something goes wrong. Oh, and that if something does go wrong that you need to fix on your end, that you aren't one of those who's stuck in a situation where they can't even financially afford to replace whatever-it-is ASAP. And I know I'm not the only one; I went into a cussing spree a few days ago when spiritrac posted that Buffalo said they didn't have his police clearance (even though it was sent with everything, again). And there have been many other similar cases on these boards alone, although they at least usually (eventually) got a reply from Buffalo saying they found the missing document. Just... wow.
Sidenote: How are they conveniently losing the one document that takes most people months to replace? If only it was just the copy of the applicant's birth certificate or something... And I wouldn't rely at all on eCAS or contacting Buffalo directly; if you want to know what's going on, order your CAIPS notes.
