Q. Will the fact that a friend’s application was delayed by a background clearance mean that I will incur the same delay, given that we are from the same country?

Answer: Although the countries in which an applicant has resided can be a factor in the duration of the processing of a background clearance, it is not always the case that all applicants from a given country incur the same processing delays - short or long. The individual circumstances of the
applicants will be a factor.

Additional information on this topic may be found at Campbell, Cohen’s web site at the following URL:

http://canadavisa.com/documents/sec_bac.html