I live in Ontario, I have had a non-restricted PAL since 2004, last updated in 2009 as non-restricted, and now I'm upgrading to RPal
My status so far...
-Took and passed course May 25th/26th
-course report mailed by instructor Mon May 27th to Ontario CFO
-course report stamped June 6 by Ontario CFO, received back to me via mail June 14th
-RPal application signed and mailed (via Purolator) June 14th - had it ready to go and
I waited for original copy of stamped course report to come back to go with the application.
-application delivered and signed for at CFC Miramichi on June 18th
-checked online on the RCMP CFC website on average every other day or two after I got the delivery receipt by email from Purolator. Only thing I saw was from my previous application renewal from 2009. Nothing new appeared online until the morning of July2nd
-starting July 2nd, the status on RCMP CFC site says received "June 24th". Old info from 2009 was replaced by this new message.
-called weekly since July 2nd and get the feedback, "application scanned and in process, but not ready to conduct interviews" - I do have an application number and reference that each time I call, as well as my existing NR-PAL number.
-references have each called in during the week of July 15th, quoted the application number I gave them and both got "not ready for interviews yet, call back in a couple of weeks"
-credit card charged July 15th for application fees
-decided to call in today, July 26th, on a Friday (from what I read, Fridays are a processing and printing day....) to shake things up a bit. Asked if they had everything they need, if there were any errors or omissions. The nice CFC clerk said she would review, and this time, the entire application was visible to her and she reviewed all 5 pages with me, confirmed the photo and test results. She even confirmed the credit card transaction was approved and applied to the account. I'm thinking, "wow this is progress!!" and was hoping I could do the interview, but, the reply was "still not ready for interviews yet, maybe another week".
So, on day 32 from when it was "officially received", day 39 from when it was signed for, day 62 from when I passed the course, my registration is definitely in progress, but not ready for interviews.
I am going away next week camping, with no access to computer or cell phone, so I will check again after the August 5th long weekend. I explained I was going away for 2 weeks to see if I could do the interview today. She put me on hold for maybe 1 minute total, came back on, but the nice lady said "If I could I would, but there simply is no way to do the interviews today". I didnt want to be too aggressive, so I just said "thanks for trying"
I will update in a couple of weeks time.
I just want to point out, that in my 4 or 5 phone calls to the CFC since the beginning of July, the CFC people have been polite, courteous and pleasant to talk to (including one male employee I spoke with). In my opinion, the level of service on the telephone is WAAY, WAAY better than say calling Bell Mobility for tech support, or even dealing with counter staff at the Canadian Tire returns desk. Its obvious that most definitely its the system that is broken here and not the people like you and me who work for a living that we speak with at the CFC. If nothing else, lets give these frontline people credit for their professionalism in spite of working under such a program.
