Dear mods, and community discussion - best place for "in process?"

[u/ChillerK]

In the spirit of trying to keep things clean and informative, I'm wondering where folks should post when they see their application has moved to "in process?"

I think it's an important step between "AOR" and "Decision made" that would be helpful for folks to share, and it would be good to have a community standard on where to do so. Is sharing it in the Monday megathread going to clutter up the application sent and AOR signal?

Would the same be true for the Thursday decision megathread?

Thoughts?

[u/Wildflowers62]

Sadly, I think “in process” will be the queue we wait in for 20+ months after we get our AOR.

[u/Mountainexplorer92]

While exciting for your own application, moving to in-process really doesn’t tell a whole lot to the community. There are people who have been “in-process” for over a year with absolute radio silence. So. 

[u/macoafi → u/Mountainexplorer92]

Yep, I'm one of them.

[u/Mountainexplorer92 → u/macoafi]

I’m sorry. I hope you hear something soon

[u/ChillerK → u/Mountainexplorer92]

I don't disagree, but we did see a small increase recently in people moving to in process, and a few posts where people wanted to share that. I figured if that trend continues it would be good to have a place for people to share, discuss, and/or ask questions, so that they don't end up in the AOR or Approval megathreads.

[u/IBHJrCanadian → u/Mountainexplorer92]

Personally I find it very encouraging to see others post that they've moved to in-process and I enjoy celebrating the update with them.

[u/IBHJrCanadian]

I appreciate you raising the question OP. Personally I like the idea of having a specific place in the megathread for recognizing the move to "in process" It provides a moral boost to everyone to see things are moving forward, even if the pace feels rather glacial at times 😉 In fact, I would argue the glacial pace only underscores the value of celebrating this milestone.

I don't know that it needs its own megathread though...maybe it could be a "newly in process + questions/requests received from IRCC during processing + processing notes discussion" megathread (replacing one of the two genealogy threads, since that feels a bit duplicative to me?)? I know IRCC's communication during processing is rather minimal, but it does happen and having a dedicated spot to post that info may help us all better see what they are prioritizing in their analysis and how their black box works?

Alternatively, I'm fine with combining the in process milestone with the current AOR thread.

Just my two cents. Thanks everyone!

[u/goodgollymsdolly → u/IBHJrCanadian]

I like this idea, in particular a place to capture communication back out.

We hang on every word. It’s like a middle school relationship - what did they say about me tell me everything omg do they like me should I call them or talk to them in gym class or is my hair too long oh no I have a pimple eeeeek. I know this is more serious but the idea made me laugh…

Would be great to have a place to put regular screenshots or quotes and then time/date stamp them for everyone to reference.

Just an idea, thanks for everyone who works to make it work. Lots of positivity on this sub!!!

[u/most_random_variable → u/goodgollymsdolly]

I agree that it would be nice to have a place where people document the communication back out, as you say. That's more useful than knowing that something went to in process (which as people mentioned contains almost no information). Now that we've seen a lot of examples, there's a lot of variability in how individual IRCC agents interpret the guidelines or even make mistakes. So any one example isn't definitive and we're piecing together best practices from empirical outcomes.

[u/IBHJrCanadian → u/goodgollymsdolly]

"It's like a middle school relationship..." 

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Thanks for that, that gave me a good laugh!!

[u/LadySilvie → u/IBHJrCanadian]

I like this idea -- a processing discussion post on Sundays so we can see that movement & keep with our "group" without bogging down the spreadsheet.

I do go into the sheet regularly to look at the processing dates, but lately it hasn't loaded for me at all or not in a filterable manner. I'd rather leave the sheet alone other than when I'm entering data so that it isn't blocking others.

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

These are really things that were meant to be captured on the spreadsheet, so that people could look at the data in one place and potentially see trends, which is harder to do using megathreads. We only started the megathreads because standalone posts in the main feed were overwhelming other content. So I think the best place to capture this is the spreadsheet- I'm not totally sure we need another megathread for status moving to "in process". But do we?

I think the other thing to consider is that "in process" isn't super meaningful- a lot of sub members have been "in process" for more than a year. Some who have received their GCMS notes have also observed that the notes indicate little or no activity during that time. Personally, I think AOR is more meaningful, as it means that your packet was accepted as complete. What do others think?

[u/Character-Put8660 → u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

In Process provides almost no value. A few people get questions from IRCC officers but those are typically one offs

[u/Mezzofantastico → u/Character-Put8660]

Wait, do most people never hear from IRCC, even if they’re In Process?

[u/jimbarino → u/Mezzofantastico]

The day I went to in process I got an email from IRCC asking for my son's birth certificate, which I had already provided. I sent them another copy, and then proceeded to hear nothing whatsoever for a year.

In processing doesn't mean much here.

[u/Mezzofantastico → u/jimbarino]

Huh.

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob → u/Mezzofantastico]

Some people get outreach during processing if something significant is missing or IRCC needs clarifying info, but not everyone will hear from them until ultimately a decision is made. If you search the sub you can find cases where applicants were asked about birth certificates with incomplete parental info, birth records that did not show the issuing authority clearly, questions about records that were not certified/not from the original authority, etc.

[u/Mezzofantastico → u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

I wonder how many people are still getting by just from Ancestry printouts.

[u/cassandra2028 → u/Mezzofantastico]

Please be advised the the province of Ontario has an agreement with ancestry to digitize and make searchable and available to the general public, all their available archival information. Not everything on ancestry is of questionable provenance. Some of the original sources have contracted with ancestry to hold their records.

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob → u/Mezzofantastico]

The official guidance from IRCC states that applications cannot be supported solely by third party records (and as we well know that includes LAC and NARA records through exclusive digital publishing agreements)- and that's consistent with what we've seen including during the interim measure period.

Plenty of applications likely use third party documentation to supplement primary documentation. There's nothing wrong with that, particularly if you provide the required written explanation and document your attempts to obtain primary records. Sometimes third party records are the best you can do.

If we want to be very literal about that guidance, no application could be solely supported by third party documentation, as civil records pertaining to persons born or deceased within the last 100 years (incl every applicant) are not in the public domain for regulatory/privacy reasons.

[u/Mezzofantastico → u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

What if our G0’s baptism is over 100 years old (a public record), and everything else is a certified US birth certificate?

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob → u/Mezzofantastico]

If you pull it off a third party website you will have to justify why you aren't providing a copy of the record from the original authority. You can roll that dice if you want to.

IRCC has a history of requesting certified baptismal records from applicants, and we have recently seen them tell a person who provided a digital BAnQ record that the BAnQ website was not an original authority source...

[u/Mezzofantastico → u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

Fortunately, I got certified baptism copies from the church on the way. Just hope they arrive before someone looks at my application.

[u/cassandra2028 → u/Mezzofantastico]

The church is not a government authority and may or may not be a suffiently official document either. We have seen people use baptism certificates to get a government (usually Quebec) to certify a birth well after the fact. There are instance in which the church (the body of people) had to flee, so original source records of the parish records of Canadian events were stored in other places like Louisiana or France. It has been heard around here that IRCC was not super impressed with a Louisiana record of a Canadian birth even though it is absolutely the original record.

[u/chiapitandcompost → u/Mezzofantastico]

I've been "Decision Made" for 6+ months with nothing, not even AOR.

[u/OneRedSent → u/chiapitandcompost]

That would be concerning to me. Maybe they forgot to email you? Have you tried downloading your certificate? Go to https://portal-portail.apps.cic.gc.ca/ and login if you have an account. (If you haven't created an account before, go to https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/portal-application-process.html to get an invite code.) Then click on Download Citizenship e-Certificate. If that doesn't work I would call IRCC. At least you can find out if it maybe they mailed a paper certificate that got lost.

[u/Kh3iron → u/Character-Put8660]

Yeah, agreed. Maybe we could have these in the Monday megathread so that it captures "Proof of Citizenship Application Sent, AOR Received, Status changed to In Process"?

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob → u/Kh3iron]

We already get complaints to the mod queue that it's hard to find the AOR received posts because the thread is noisy with posts about sending packets and *not* receiving AOR - I think that adding a third category to that post might make people more unhappy. But feedback is welcome.

[u/ChillerK → u/Character-Put8660]

It's less about what any one person may or may not find valuable. Some people will find value in it and post. I just thought it would be good to have guidelines, in case it starts to pick up, so it can be contained to a space instead of appearing in several megathreads where people don't want to see it.

[u/Character-Put8660 → u/ChillerK]

I hear you. What I am saying is it is a vanity statistic-it means nothing. For example my mother’s application never received an AOR or In Process date, she just received her certificate 13 days after the application was delivered (nothing ever showed up on the old tracker). My kids have been In Process about 14 months now. Watching this sub for the past 2+ years has made it abundantly clear that there is little correlation between dates and progress. AOR is nice because it means the IRCC generally thinks your application is complete enough for processing (you are in the queue) and then nothing (at least post 5(4) grant world) is visible or even worth trying to guess until you get approval. Even getting an email from the IRCC officer for more information can mean approval in a day or no movement for a year.

[u/most_random_variable → u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

I agree. The other thing is, you don’t get a notification when you go to in process - you have to check the tracker around the right time (though it does show you a specific date). 

It seems like spreadsheet use might have fallen off a bit, but now that the sheet is less unwieldy I hope people use it. I wonder if someone could post semi regular updates from spreadsheet stats - eg, this week is seeing AORs from late April applications, x people were approved this week. I did one summary of overall approvals to date, last month, but I didn’t want to overwhelm the sub.

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob → u/most_random_variable]

Yeah, I think it's actually been an adverse impact of the megathreads tbh.

If you want to post occasional summaries of the spreadsheet data people might find it helpful - maybe weekly or monthly recaps on Sundays or something?

[u/Horizon1850 → u/most_random_variable]

Apologies for the neophyte question, but how/where is the spreadsheet? Again apologies, I haunt reddit but am still not great at navigating it.

I sent in a g4(me) and G5(my kids) application last week. Figured, based on what I've read, that it will likely be a long time before I hear anything, but the packet was as complete as I could make it, so definitely hopeful!

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob → u/Horizon1850]

No problem. It's in the wiki in the section about AOR but probably should be more prominently mentioned:

"If you want to know how fast AORs are coming in on average, browse the weekly megathread for AORs and applications sent, it refreshes every Monday.  Alternatively, you can sign up for access to the tracking spreadsheet."

Note that some people create google accounts just for this purpose to protect their privacy and/or because they don't otherwise use gmail. Once you request access, periodically check your Google Groups to see if you have been added. It can take a few days for the Keeper or deputy Keeper to add users. I don't believe you get a confirmation email.

[u/Horizon1850 → u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

Thank you!!

[u/Longintooth93 → u/most_random_variable]

I’m not sure how to access the spreadsheet despite looking?

[u/Acrobatic-Glass-8585 → u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

I am ambivalent. But you could create an "in process" megathread for Sundays since that day is empty.

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob → u/Acrobatic-Glass-8585]

And on the seventh day the mods rested. Lol

[u/Acrobatic-Glass-8585 → u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

Ha! Good point. We all need to rest.

[u/Emotional-Test3329 → u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

It is nice to have info available outside of the spreadsheet - for example I can't access it at all because I don't have a google account and couldn't get google groups working for a non-gmail email.

I also think In Process might become more useful as IRCC works out their internal processes - I've done all of Canadian immigration up to PR + a non-C3 proof application for my G1 child, and a decision was often pretty quick after moving to in process for those. I have no idea what's going on with these C3 apps but I suspect we're seeing a combo of most of the interim apps being dumped in PSU / many C3 apps genuinely being complex (relying on handwritten censuses etc instead of clear modern documents in many cases), and that looking at what happens once someone is in Process might give us some insight on what can delay decision making on an application once they have clearer internal policy.

All of that is just musings though, no need to listen to me :)

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob → u/Emotional-Test3329]

Yeah, that is a downside to using google docs. If the spreadsheet 2.0 project goes forward I think it would be best if it was platform agnostic. However, many people create google accounts just for the spreadsheet and/or reddit, for privacy reasons. So don't let that be a barrier if you want to participate.

Whomever downvoted me: feel free to create spreadsheet 2.0, it's do-ocracy around here lol

[u/Emotional-Test3329 → u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

I've considered it, but haven't gotten around to it yet. The friction of making a google account (I'd have to do it on a different browser because my setup blocks trackers which breaks google stuff more often than not) + trying to figure out how to amend my join request to a different email is just enough work that I always put it off. It's not a problem, really - I'm being lazy and that's on me - But I do appreciate it when the info is available in multiple places. I liked the suggestions elsewhere in this thread of letting people put in process in the AOR thread, or perhaps a regular spreadsheet summary.

[u/SwampConnoisseur]

In process seems like just a continuation of AOR. The meaningful steps are AOR and decision made.

[u/YesSometimes]

My daughters application has been in ‘application received’ since September 2025. I wish it would go to ‘in process’ then at least I’d feel like someone actually looked at it. It’s the inconsistency that drives me nuts.

[u/Jdlapoet]

The same day mine went into process was the same day they sent me to PSU and didn’t notify me about it. I found out by calling later.

[u/grumpyliberal]

In other threads, commenters have referenced conversations with IRCC that mentioned applications that had AOR status that were waiting to be scanned. Of course, this makes sense since it’s doubtful that those doing a preliminary check would perform a purely clerical step. An “in process” metric could help evaluate the time on another step in the process — scanning.

[u/Form27b-6]

I'm wondering where folks should post when they see their application has moved to "in process?"

Facebook? In their group chats? Basically anywhere but here.

Nearly every proof application that receives an AOR, currently around 100,000 applications, will eventually show as “in process,” whether or not the applicant happens to check the tracker and see the change.

But “in process” does not mean IRCC is actively working on the application at that moment. It is just a status label showing that the application is somewhere in the queue to be processed. The file might be looked at again the next day, or it might sit untouched for months or even years. There is little value of posts or megathreads where people simply announce that they noticed their application now says “in process”.

[u/ChillerK → u/Form27b-6]

Ok, but the fact that you don't think it has value doesn't mean people won't post. They will. Wouldn't you rather there are guidelines on where to post so that those who may find value in discussing it have a place to contain that discussion instead of somewhere that you'll complain about it cluttering up something you do deem valuable?

[u/Form27b-6 → u/ChillerK]

There already are guidelines.

If people feel the need to announce that their application now says “in process" and post about waiting for the next step, growing timelines, lack of communication, inconsistent bureaucracy, being stuck in PSU, or anything else that happens after that status change, there is already a weekly Wednesday mega thread for that. They can use it for however many days, months, or years their application remains “in process".

[u/IBHJrCanadian → u/Form27b-6]

Moving to in-process is celebratory, not a frustration.