Don't be so optimistic that they will process most of cases in 9 or 12 months. It's the end of the year and they want curve the processing time average to 26 months. It's all politics and bureaucracy method to lower the average of processing time.
E.g a case take 30 months and other 29 months, in average it's much higher than 26 months; thus they process a case in 11 months which make the average aprox 23 months..... now it's usefully for politician to use it and also for the embassy to show that they are doing things as it set up by the ministry......
I am doing the same thing in my organization when generating annual report.....It's a legal technique as far as you mention result in average which CIC does ;D
It's not right,but when you have the number, you can represent it in way that make you or departement look good