Outland applications certainly do not take 26 months. even in the extreme cases (not including appeals). more than likely, the real processing time is half or less than half the time posted on the cic website. the times posted on the website for outland applications is NOT an average, so if you see 26 months referenced, that does not suggest the "average" is 26 months. it suggests 80% of applications are processed WITHIN that time, and a majority are actually processed a lot quicker than that... what country are you from?