hi aldousclark im no authority just another brother trying to help out...
i believe both online and paper based application pareho lang ang processing time which is within 9 weeks. Merong mga na aaprove ng one month meron din nmn mas matagal it all depends kung gaano ka organized and well made ang application, specially sa SOP part. One advantage na nakita ko sa mga applicants who used online kapag nagkaproblema ang application at na reject , like nakalimutan mag attach ng NBI na reason, mas madali na lang mag resubmit coz you can simply scan it and email it sa cic account mo. on the other hand, kapag paper based ka kelangan mo ba mag resend ulit using snail mail or personal na pupunta sa VFS to resubmit. Just my two cents.
no need to notarize lahat ng documents mo unless needed (like letter of support) just make sure clear ung mga copies mo at tama ang pag compress mo sa file para readable mag nireview ng VO.
good luck sa application