Timeline -- Register and Retain citizenship under section 8

I'm currently waiting on an application to Register and Retain citizenship from within Canada. As I understand it, my application is currently "in process" in Sydney. I'm wondering if anyone else is waiting for something similar or if anyone knows more specifics about timelines for this type of application.

My timeline so far is:

Application recieved in Sydney: late January 2007
Confirmation letter: never recieved
Current application status: "in process" since mid-March 2007

The CIC website says 15-18 months is the average processing time. Can anyone confirm if this figure is, indeed, accurate? Is it possible that it will go faster since I've applied from within Canada? Also, since I don't need to write a test for my application, is there a chance that things will be sped up?