Eight weeks into a pending SDS application (biometrics and medical passed, eligibility review started), an applicant asked whether to request GCMS notes and whether a Canadian relative approaching a Member of Parliament could expedite things. The measured advice:
- Benchmark against the official average first. Check IRCC's published processing time for your country; IRCC's position is that ~80% of applications clear within it, and the rest can take longer. Members' rule: escalate only once your case is well past that average — the poster's 7+ weeks against a ~1-month average for their country was the trigger point.
- Webforms: low cost, low expectations. Webform enquiries take a very long time to be answered, if at all. Still, one member saw no harm in filing one — and suggested pointing out in it that comparable applications were being decided in about a month.
- The MP route: seen, not guaranteed. Members had seen people approach MPs for PR and spouse-visa delays. Verdict: "no harm in trying both the modes" — treat it as a nudge, not a lever.
- The GCMS question went unanswered — the thread never resolved whether ordering notes mid-process helps or affects anything, so no guidance is drawn on it here.