A CEC applicant (CRS 496 with an inland spouse, invited at a 490 cutoff) shared a complete timeline, and the comments answered a common post-eCOPR question.
The timeline (VO Etobicoke):- ITA — Jan 18 (cutoff 490)
- AOR — Jan 23
- Biometrics updated — Mar 7
- Approval email — May 18; applicant replied the same day with requested details
- PR portal email with credentials — May 19
- Address and photo submitted in the portal — May 20
- eCOPR — May 26
Roughly four months from AOR to eCOPR, with about a week between the approval email and eCOPR once the portal steps were done promptly.
After eCOPR — do you need to link the PR card application in GCKey? Two members answered the same way: linking is
not mandatory. The PR card is produced regardless once eCOPR is issued and the photo is approved; linking the application in your GCKey account is purely optional, useful only for tracking its progress.
What sped things up: replying to the approval email the same day and completing the portal photo/address step within a day kept the final stretch to eight days.