My friend and I are returning from Morocco back to the US on December 25th. The tickets I bought have a layover in Montreal, Canada. I'm a Canadian citizen, so I don't need any visa. However, my friend is a Bengali citizen with an F1 student visa in the US.
I am aware that he would need transit visa to go through Canada, so I helped him apply on Oct 15, which I thought should be sufficient time. However, I haven't heard anything from the IRCC yet, and the visa application is not even at the Review of eligibility stage yet. I am a bit worried because we will leave for Morocco on December 9th, and I don't know if we will have enough time to wait for the application decision to be finalized plus getting his passport mailed back and forth.
Is this waiting time usual? And is there any way I can expedite the visa application process?