What do processing times really mean?

[penandpaper]

Sorry if this is a repeat question ....

I am curious what the processing times really mean (first stage, spousal, outland.)

For example when the website says: "working on applications received on July 15, 2011", what does this really tell me about apps received July 14 2011 (ours) and earlier?
What has been done by CIC, what remains to be done, has anything been decided, etc.?
Does this mean that a decision on the sponsor has been made?
Are we to expect a letter/email to either/both sponsor and applicant since we are in different countries?
Also, has a client ID number been assigned and if so can I call the center and obtain the number over the phone before I receive any official document from CIC with that number? I am asking this because I still need to send them the FBI certificate - never mind that call center people have given me conflicting instructions .... Basically, I know that CIC will send me a letter requesting the certificate but I would like to obtain my Client ID and send the certificate before this letter arrives because I am afraid of the whole expiration ordeal ...

Thanks for clearing this for me!!

penandpaper

 

[penandpaper]

PS: It is my understanding that even if the FBI certificate expires (3 month cutoff), lets say, on November 10th and CIC receives it on November 8th, it is still ok, correct?

thanks!

 

[shiftpro]

Hi Pen,
If your sponsorship has been sent to Mississauga then you the sponsor will receive an email if you have provided it, and it will tell you
your sponsorship has be approved and that the application has been forwarded to the applicant's country's consulate. Whew!
The email or letter you will receive from Mississauga will have the client i.d. number listed on it. Then get your police checks sent in you
will have time.
As long as they are still valid when you send them off everything should be good.

 

[ddobro2]

Technically, "first stage" approval is reserved for inlanders; it's just sponsorship approval for us outlanders (CIC's processing times page also refers to it as "step 1". Anyway, if they received your file July 14 and they are working on files past that date, they've started looking at your undertaking. The 66 days means that people who applied 66 days ago *should* now be getting their decisions. That's based on their update on September 21, and they update step 1 processing times weekly.

Best thing to do is to sign up for e-cas tracker, be patient, and have the sponsor check his or her mail and email. I'm not sure what by what method CPC-M will inform you, but in my case, we got it via email. It always goes to the sponsor, not the applicant. If you have previous dealings with CIC, you'll have a Client ID number. If you don't, you'll get one when the forward your file to the visa office, which they'll do after they approve the undertaking. The sponsorship approval letter from CPC-M will include the UCI (Client ID number) of your sponsor, and apparently now an #Fxxxxxxxxx number which is your application number. You should be able to log into e-cas soon after approval, but e-cas tracker will notify you, as long as you entered all the applicable information to identify you.

I recommend getting the police clearance from the FBI asap. Technically, you should have had everything required of you already in the application when you sent it to Mississauga. The 3 month expiration date associated with that only means that as long as CIC has it within 3 months following the date on the clearance, you are fine. However, it can take up to two months for the FBI to process it, and if you're like me and your first set of fingerprints isn't so great, that means even more time spent waiting for a letter deeming the prints "illegible" and having to do it over.

Sorry if this is a repeat question ....

I am curious what the processing times really mean (first stage, spousal, outland.)

For example when the website says: "working on applications received on July 15, 2011", what does this really tell me about apps received July 14 2011 (ours) and earlier?
What has been done by CIC, what remains to be done, has anything been decided, etc.?
Does this mean that a decision on the sponsor has been made?
Are we to expect a letter/email to either/both sponsor and applicant since we are in different countries?
Also, has a client ID number been assigned and if so can I call the center and obtain the number over the phone before I receive any official document from CIC with that number? I am asking this because I still need to send them the FBI certificate - never mind that call center people have given me conflicting instructions .... Basically, I know that CIC will send me a letter requesting the certificate but I would like to obtain my Client ID and send the certificate before this letter arrives because I am afraid of the whole expiration ordeal ...

Thanks for clearing this for me!!

penandpaper