I am not sure about the rules but I wonder is CIC, New Delhi allowed to sit over peoples passport for this long. I had applied for immigration under spousal category in Jan, 2006 and immigrations officials at Mississauga wrongly routed my immigration file to Buffalo and after repeated requests and to correct their mistake they finally re-routed my application to CIC, New Delhi, as a result I lost about 2 months of processing time. In June I received a letter from CIC New Delhi asking me for my passport as well as police clearance from Georgia, USA. I sent the passport along with Police clearance on 26th July and its been about 72 days and still waiting.
Meanwhile I emailed CIC to check on my status and they got back to me saying that a background check was been done on my application through an external agency. I know there are couple of other people on this forum who are in the same situation as me.
My question is: 1) Does anyone have an estimate on how long this process usually take?
2) Can CIC sit over my passport for longer than 4 months.
3) Can I do anything at my end to expedite this process.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

I dont think they can sit on the passport for so long. The passport is a property of Govt of India and you could also need it to travel outside the country.

But its useless to call the Canadian High commision. Bunch of Jokers and they wont give any answers. perhaps you should send a fax stating the facts above:

1. property of govt of India
2. You could need the passport for travel

ideally they should only ask for passport once all fromalities have been done. not before. then it takes 3-4 weeks