Permanent residence · Still in process
AOR received, then months of silence. Your notes show which of the three checks is holding your file.
An Express Entry file moves through separate streams that do not update your online account at the same time — eligibility (R10 / A11 completeness and points), then criminality, then security screening, plus medicals.
Security screening in particular is done by partner agencies, not by the IRCC officer handling your file. When it sits with a partner agency, your officer genuinely cannot speed it up and your account will show nothing new for months.
Portal status often shows only a broad stage. It does not tell you which underlying check is incomplete — but the file entries do.
A long wait is not automatically a stalled wait. Rule these out first — several are things applicants genuinely miss.
IRCC publishes live processing times, and they change often — check the current time for Express Entry permanent residence. We deliberately do not quote a number here, because any number we printed would be out of date within weeks.
This is the part almost nobody realises. You do not have to be refused to request your file. An application that is still in process has notes too — and for a file that has gone silent, they are usually the only way to find out what is actually happening.
If your notes contain any of these, the delay has a cause you can act on rather than simply wait out.
By far the most common one across every programme is the last kind: IRCC asked for something and never got a reply — often because the request went to an agent's email, or to an address the applicant no longer uses. The file then sits indefinitely, waiting on you.
Read the full escalation guide for stuck applications →
An Express Entry file moves through separate streams that do not update your online account at the same time — eligibility (R10 / A11 completeness and points), then criminality, then security screening, plus medicals. Security screening in particular is done by partner agencies, not by the IRCC officer handling your file. When it sits with a partner agency, your officer genuinely cannot speed it up and your account will show nothing new for months. Portal status often shows only a broad stage. It does not tell you which underlying check is incomplete — but the file entries do.
For an application still in process, the notes show what has been recorded so far: whether eligibility has been assessed, and whether it passed; the recorded status of criminality and security screening as separate lines; whether medicals were received, and their validity dates; which office or unit currently holds the file; officer remarks on anything unusual — a name match, a document request, an inconsistency; whether correspondence was sent to you that you never received. Your GCMS notes are a snapshot of what was recorded on your file at the time IRCC processed your request — not a live tracker. They will not give you a decision date. What they do give you is the truth about which stage your file actually reached, which checks are outstanding, and whether anything was asked of you that you never answered.
No. A Privacy Act request is handled by IRCC's ATIP unit, which is separate from the officers deciding your application. Requesting your own file is a legal right and it does not affect processing of the application itself.
Yes to both. Under the Privacy Act there is no fee to request your own personal information, and since July 2022 any person anywhere in the world can file directly, in their own name, with no representative in Canada required.
No, and anyone promising that is not telling you the truth. The notes will not contain a decision date. They tell you which stage your file genuinely reached, which checks are still outstanding, and whether IRCC asked you for something you never answered — which is often the real reason a file has stopped moving.
Check the current published processing time for your exact stream on IRCC's tool — Express Entry targets differ by category; Confirm your medicals are still valid; expired medicals stall a file silently; Check your junk/spam folder and your representative's inbox for an unanswered request; Verify the email and address on your profile are the ones you actually use.
Your Express Entry file has a written record. Requesting it from Canada is free and takes about twenty minutes — we publish every step, with a screenshot of every screen. If the notes come back and you cannot read them, send them to us.
