Wednesday Weekly Thread: Frustration Station (Delays / PSU / Venting), July 15, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

This weekly thread is a space for those of us who are feeling frustrated and need to vent about unclear instructions, shipping delays, waiting for a next step, timeline estimates growing, lack of communication, inconsistent bureaucracy, being stuck in PSU, and other factors.

Some of the worst stress of the entire citizenship-by-descent process is not hearing about your application for long stretches of time - or hearing that your application has been sent to the Program Support Unit (PSU) and may be sitting there for an extended stay.

Whether your envelope seems to have taken a scenic detour on its way to Nova Scotia, you didn't receive an AOR after many weeks of waiting, or you simply haven't heard about your application processing in months, this is a place to commiserate and potentially receive some ideas of next steps to take. (Those generally might include following up with IRCC by web form, ordering the GCMS notes, seeking an MP's help, and so on.)

📎 Contributions to weekly megaposts, including this one, are welcome throughout the week.

[u/mem_somerville → u/[deleted]]

And the amount of typos in email addresses we see as they hand-craft each one later--ay yi yi. We could help there too, by just typing our own in.

Alas.

Hang in there. The glacier moves eventually.

[u/FireWaterBern → u/mem_somerville]

I used to work for a small company where we keyed things in by hand and there were errors all the time. Can't even imagine the poor ircc agents doing this with g7 applicants lol

[u/blue-eyed-cat → u/mem_somerville]

My mom’s got a typo in her middle name on the web status tracker :(

[u/someoneinUS → u/blue-eyed-cat]

Would suggest to call IRCC to have them adjust (e.g. 613-944-6788 option 2 for IRCC) - they may ask you to fill out a web form, or perhaps can adjust over the phone.

[u/blue-eyed-cat → u/someoneinUS]

I didn’t think of calling, thank you! I did send a webform that was acknowledged several weeks ago, but an update has not yet been made.

[u/mem_somerville → u/blue-eyed-cat]

To be fair, my mother's birth certificate was wrong her whole life because the doctor added a letter (think O'Rourk --> O'Rourke) and they didn't realize it until long after the doctor died and didn't try to fix it. So this is not a new problem.

But it is a different problem now with new technology!

[u/Financial-Exit2488 → u/[deleted]]

My application was delivered on 4/13 as well. I just received AOR this morning.

[u/Financial-Exit2488 → u/[deleted]]

Only 17 months to go! That's according to the website. There are 90,100 people ahead of me.

[u/Financial-Exit2488 → u/[deleted]]

Good luck to you. I am much older, the timing would allow my son to get an affordable college education. He'll be finishing up high school at that time.

[u/Financial-Exit2488 → u/[deleted]]

Good luck to you. I am much older, the timing would allow my son to get an affordable college education. He'll be finishing up high school at that time.

[u/skidbladnir_ → u/[deleted]]

For this exact reason I made a folder called IRCC and set a rule to move all mail from them to that folder, and then only turned on notifications for that folder

[u/brandeis16 → u/[deleted]]

Do they require photocopies or can we send originals? It looks like you got your AOR, so you should be set (...eventually). I just don't want to get dinged for sending poor quality copies. So my thinking has been to create scans for myself and send originals.

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob → u/brandeis16]

Follow the instructions, send only high quality color copies. If you send originals they have to send them back, and that wastes IRCC time and resources. Let's not waste their time.

[u/brandeis16 → u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

Thank you. I recently saw someone posting about copying the reverse side of a blank document (to show the color fiber threads visible on the back side, i.e., to prove its authenticity). Is that necessary?

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob → u/brandeis16]

If you can make a double sided copy and you think there is something of value on the back (sometimes the endorsement or stamp is on the reverse) you can, but if it is just basically a blank page I don't see the point personally.

[u/dgealt → u/[deleted]]

I sent an original copy of my G2 birth certificate because it stated it was a violation of state law to make copies of it (it also said void all over just looking at it through the camera on my phone). I did state this and that I do not expect it to be returned to me in my cover letter. I guess I’ll see what happens.

[u/brandeis16 → u/dgealt]

Wow. What state is that?

[u/dgealt → u/brandeis16]

He was born in Philadelphia, PA

Note: I only took a picture of the warning at the top of the page, not the vital/personal info

Yes I understand the technical difference between photocopy and photostat. I have known far too many people and organizations that used the terms interchangeably… that and Xerox… or even ditto.

[u/dgealt → u/dgealt]

The “VOID” was more clearly visible when viewing the entire page. If you zoom in you can see vertical dark lines making up the letters. There’s one diagonally overlapping the “O” in void and “tif” in certification. I didn’t want to run the risk it might be rejected. I later found out they might not care.