Its glory days they are not: the rankings of the Buffalo-NY visa post responsible for processing Canadian immigration applications have plummeted from being near the top  -in terms of processing times globally - to near last. The Canadian Consulate General in Buffalo-NY, the main office responsible for the processing of Canadian Permanent Residence and temporary visa applications for persons in the USA intending to immigrate to Canada, was known as one of the fastest, most reliable processing centers for Canadian immigration applications globally – until recently. Only the visa posts in Trinidad & Tobago and Pakistan process applications slower than the Buffalo visa post at the moment. This cannot be good news for the many American nationals and persons living in the US who are considering immigrating permanently to Canada. With the highest rate of American immigration into Canada in the past 30 years, it may be the backlog, it may be the management, but something is certainly slowing down the processing of applications at this visa post. Applicants who submitted their documents when the Buffalo visa post had published processing standards of 6-12 months in past years, are dismayed to find out that processing times have grown to 21 months. For Federal Skilled Worker applicants, this delay is compounded by the fact that these applications must first pass a preliminary assessment stage at the Case Processing Centre, which itself takes an additional 5 months at this time. In all, waiting for 26 months may not be such an attractive deal to many highly qualified nationals. The solution? May applicants are instructing their Canadian immigration lawyers to submit their applications at the visa post responsible for their country of nationality. With processing times like 18 months in Damascus-Syria, 15 months for New Delhi – India, and 15 months for Mexico City – Mexico, many applicants, even those who may be working or living in the US, are asking their Canadian immigration lawyers to file their applications at the visa offices responsible for their home countries.