Temporary permits · Still in process
The trip is approaching and nothing has moved. The notes show whether the file has even been opened yet.
Visitor applications are processed in large volumes and a file can genuinely sit in a queue before any officer has looked at it.
Where biometrics or a medical are outstanding, the file will not progress and nothing tells you.
For Super visa applications, the required insurance and the host's income assessment add extra points where a file can pause.
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 visitor visas. We deliberately do not quote a number here, because any number we printed would be out of date within weeks.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 →
Visitor applications are processed in large volumes and a file can genuinely sit in a queue before any officer has looked at it. Where biometrics or a medical are outstanding, the file will not progress and nothing tells you. For Super visa applications, the required insurance and the host's income assessment add extra points where a file can pause.
For an application still in process, the notes show what has been recorded so far: whether the file has been assigned and assessed at all, or is still queued; biometric and medical status; for super visas, whether the insurance and host income evidence were accepted; officer remarks on purpose of travel or ties, where an assessment has begun; any correspondence sent to you. 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 published processing time for visitor visas from your country before assuming a delay; Confirm biometrics were given and recorded; For Super visa, confirm the insurance policy still meets the requirements and has not lapsed; Check whether the trip dates have passed — an outdated itinerary weakens a pending file.
Your Visitor visa 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.
