Shorten PAL Approval Times

Mine was sent late October, my reference called in, which WAS A HUGE TIME SAVER… however because I've seen a medical practitioner in the past 5 years for "behaviour" issues, the feds sent my application to the CFO of the province, and they actually assigned a detective to my file. Anybody else encounter this? I was told because there are criminals applying for guns, my application may get relegated and could take years… yikes… anyhow I'm in no rush but I'd like to move things along.
are you applying for RPAL?
 
Well made my weekly phone call today, mine was received Dec 11th. Informed still not ready and suggested to call back in 2 weeks. Once again I re-iterated I'm trying to apply for a job that requires Rpal and she advised until it's completed it's initial data entry there is nothing they can do about it. So day 60 today and she's suggesting to check back in on Day 74.
 
today they told me my refs can call in.
now app status is "we need to scan photo before sending file to cfo for approval"

timeline:
exam nov 9th
results dec 5th -> mailed same day
application received in miramichi dec 8th
online jan 9th
references called feb 5th


anyone knows how long it takes from references interview to approval?
 
Haven't read the thread yet (it's pretty long!) but here is my stats of today
Exam Dec 11 Mailed on Dec 15
Application received in miramichi on Dec 17th
Online between Jan 17-23rd (can't remember the exact date)
Received results from CFO on Jan 23rd (actually 25th)
Faxed on Jan 26th and took until Feb 2nd to get added against my application
Called today and he said they are still in the data entry stage and to call in 2 weeks.

From reading sekokossov I should't bother for another 2 weeks and probably references can call then .
Online it states the following:
"Your application has completed initial processing. It is now in progress. Please check the status again at a later date. "
Reading that I would think references could call now
 
If they did, I'm sure the amount of times I checked mine online in the past 2.5 months would have overloaded the system by now. Lol

They do track the calls. Thing is the people who answer the phone are not the ones who actually do the processing. They are just there to field calls.
No matter how much you call is not going to make a difference in them moving faster to process. That said, if there is an issue you may save a couple days of finding out before something is mailed (assuming they don't call you first).
 
what can be done to speed things up? Looks like calling them doesn't help at all.
and btw, I called today and the operator confirmed that no licence was issued.... I knew that already. She wouldn't say anything about the status or waiting tyime.

Prety much from what I have heard (and am reading in this thread) the only thing that can speed it up is if you are going for restricted is once you can get your references to call in, get them. Seems like that is around day 74 of the application. Anything before that don't even bother.

From what it looks like reading here these are the times to check online:
After day 30 - your application should be up
After day 74 - try seeing if your references can call.

Anything else is the great big cogs of bureaucracy that turn on their own accord
When you think about it, we are all calling them and nothing changes in turnaround time.
 
So waited 7 days as requested and once again called in now on Day 50 and still not ready for my references to call and told to call back in a week. I tried to ask politely if there is a way to move this along or what the possible delay was as again I'm waiting to apply for a job that requires an rpal I got a very terse "you don't need to call in again, we have until at least the middle of February to complete this and we'll call your references when we are ready.

Gotta admit this is starting suck a lot of the excitement out of this new adventure.

Here is a stupid question. How would you feel if someone who was on day 20 called and said the same thing and got pushed ahead of you? Their answer makes sense and is the farest way to do it. Recognize that you are doing this for a job but I'm not but damn straight I would say it was for a job if I knew it would make things go faster.

We are all in the same boat and yes it is frustrating having to wait so long. I am about the same point as you and reading this thread it seems like no point wasting my or their time until at least next Friday afternoon (Feb 13th) to see if references can call in
 
Here is a stupid question. How would you feel if someone who was on day 20 called and said the same thing and got pushed ahead of you?

Probably disappointed the same way I felt when Infamous on here allegedly got his approved on day 30 and his had been received 11 days after mine. I get the system is what it is but you know that simply hitting the day they actually are ready will reduce your timeline as they will still likely take weeks to get around to calling your references if you wait is what I find frustrating when it's time sensitive.

Called in today.

Date mailed: Dec 17th
Date received: Dec 22
Date online: Jan 16
Date payment taken: Jan 19 (this was also the last day of my 28 day period)
Called in: Jan 22

They told me they were ready for reference checks. My reference is calling in in 20 mins.

*bites nails*
 
Haven't read the thread yet (it's pretty long!) but here is my stats of today
Exam Dec 11 Mailed on Dec 15
Application received in miramichi on Dec 17th
Online between Jan 17-23rd (can't remember the exact date)
Received results from CFO on Jan 23rd (actually 25th)
Faxed on Jan 26th and took until Feb 2nd to get added against my application
Called today and he said they are still in the data entry stage and to call in 2 weeks.

From reading sekokossov I should't bother for another 2 weeks and probably references can call then .
Online it states the following:
"Your application has completed initial processing. It is now in progress. Please check the status again at a later date. "
Reading that I would think references could call now

When my app said that online I called and they said it would be 2 weeks to call back before they would let me know about getting references to call in.
 
Probably disappointed the same way I felt when Infamous on here allegedly got his approved on day 30 and his had been received 11 days after mine. I get the system is what it is but you know that simply hitting the day they actually are ready will reduce your timeline as they will still likely take weeks to get around to calling your references if you wait is what I find frustrating when it's time sensitive.
Thing is other than getting your references to call, i dont think there is actually anyway to actually impact the reduction in waiting. What they really need is to modify the online results to reflect this. From what i have read it seems like there are only three status:
Nothing
IN progress
Approved
They need to add two more:
Reference ready
Stopped due to deviation/more information required

If they did that and allowed you to set an alert against it when status changes similar to how UPS or Fedex has it, they would probably have a ton of calls disappear.

More transparency in the process would be good as well. I suspect which province you are from probably has an impact as well. I.e Ontario back of the line, NWT priority given due to demand.

What would also be jnteresting is to compare times like:
Challenged exam but did not submit results at same time
Challenged exam and submitted results at same time
Did official course and submitted results at same time
Did official course and did not submit resukts at same time.

It is supposed to be faster to submit results later but i wonder if that is true if you compare from submission to completion while disregarding the 28 day wait.
 
What I don't understand is this. If they are so busy why not hire more staff? Can't afford to? Increase the price. I would have gladly paid more to be complete in a month. Treat it like a business...
 
Hello all, I thought I would post my timeline, to help (RPAL):

Safety course + tests completed Oct. 21
Received results Nov 20
Mailed to Mirimichi, Nov 21st non-registered mail (should have registered it!)
[Application received on Nov 28th -- did not show up online yet (why didn't they post it when they got it initially?? LOL)]
Called Jan 2th, told to wait and it will show up online
Shows up on website Jan 5th as "Completed initial processing. In progress" ......
Called Jan 21, told, still in progress, but to call back around 2 weeks, and might be ready for interviews
Called today (Feb 5th) given # to have reference call in, had him call in, and application shows up 5 mins later as " approve and issued...."
Waiting on mail delivery now....


Two things have changed: they no longer require the applicant to do a interview, and the license # DOES NOT show up on the website when the license is issued.

Also note: only one interview needs to be done for RPAL (the nice lady on the phone told me this), I got to pick who that was.



Hope this helps, and good luck guys!
 
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Called today (Feb 5th) given # to have reference call in, had him call in, and application shows up 5 mins later as " approve and issued...."
Two things have changed: they no longer require the applicant to do a interview, and the license # DOES NOT show up on the website when the license is issued.

that makes me jealous. mine and gnatwest's licenses weren't issued within 5 minutes after references called in.
license# wont show because I heard few guys were caught photoshopping PAL and getting stuff from online stores with fake 'scans'
 
that makes me jealous. mine and gnatwest's licenses weren't issued within 5 minutes after references called in.
license# wont show because I heard few guys were caught photoshopping PAL and getting stuff from online stores with fake 'scans'

My reference called Wednesday and hasnt been approved either.
 
What I don't understand is this. If they are so busy why not hire more staff? Can't afford to? Increase the price. I would have gladly paid more to be complete in a month. Treat it like a business...

As working in the IT industry odds are they have a specific SLA (service Licence Agreement) which states they have to process an application in an average amount of days. Over a year they probably make the average, thus no need for extra staff. Also the price is probably only a portion of what it costs to do this. Just a security check for the mounties as part of the process for adopting children is $75 a person. Also they have the mandatory cooldown period of 28 days, they won't even touch it for that long which probably is what is happening is the letter sits in a box for 28 days from day of receiving it.

What it looks like now is:
Mail received to submission into system: ~30-35 days
Enter system to References able to check: ~30 days
References talked to: 1-?? (assuming you find the day of and have your references call but curious how long it would take for them to get around to calling references)
References complete to issuing: seen as short as 5 minutes

So there is two things to shorten:
1. Submit application AT THE SAME TIME you send your results to the CFO as this gets it into the system earlier, odds are they won't touch it by the time the CFO sends you the results back, you can then call them and ask for a fax number to fax in your results. I got my application number about 3 days before I got my results back
2. Have your references call with your application number and give it.

When a buddy got his restricted he let both myself and his other reference know they could call. I called in the morning and when his other reference called in the afternoon they told him they only needed to talk to one.
 
As working in the IT industry odds are they have a specific SLA (service Licence Agreement) which states they have to process an application in an average amount of days. Over a year they probably make the average, thus no need for extra staff. Also the price is probably only a portion of what it costs to do this. Just a security check for the mounties as part of the process for adopting children is $75 a person. Also they have the mandatory cooldown period of 28 days, they won't even touch it for that long which probably is what is happening is the letter sits in a box for 28 days from day of receiving it.

What it looks like now is:
Mail received to submission into system: ~30-35 days
Enter system to References able to check: ~30 days
References talked to: 1-?? (assuming you find the day of and have your references call but curious how long it would take for them to get around to calling references)
References complete to issuing: seen as short as 5 minutes

So there is two things to shorten:
1. Submit application AT THE SAME TIME you send your results to the CFO as this gets it into the system earlier, odds are they won't touch it by the time the CFO sends you the results back, you can then call them and ask for a fax number to fax in your results. I got my application number about 3 days before I got my results back
2. Have your references call with your application number and give it.

When a buddy got his restricted he let both myself and his other reference know they could call. I called in the morning and when his other reference called in the afternoon they told him they only needed to talk to one.



So can I send my exam results to my cfo while I wait foe my licence to be processed ???? To speed things up that is .
 
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