I already have citizenship as I arrived in Canada a year earlier than my wife. Thus my wife applied a year later than me and her timeline is as follows (application sent by her Dec 2012):
We received your application for Canadian citizenship (grant of citizenship) on January 24, 2013.
We sent you a letter acknowledging receipt of your application(s), and a study book called Discover Canada on January 24, 2013. Please consider delays in mail delivery before contacting us.
We started processing your application on March 19, 2013.
We sent you a letter on November 12, 2013. If you have not yet provided the information or the requested documents, please do so as soon as possible. Please wait until you receive the letter before sending us additional information, as the letter will outline all information that is required. Please consider delays in mail delivery before contacting us.
In addition to what the online account states per above, CIC also sent a standard letter in Dec 2013 advising of need to sit a knowledge test (which in fact wont be required because my wife is aged over 54 years). They had also sent another letter in Oct 2013 (also unrecorded online) requiring an RQ (which had already been provided with the original application anyway) but CIC's accompanying info stated an incorrect nationality for my wife so she sent them a letter asking for corrected forms to be sent though. Instead she got a fingerprint request (November 12, 2013 letter logged above). She had the fingerprints done and submitted to CIC on 20 Dec 2013....Nothing further received from CIC since.
My reading of forums suggests the entire process may now take up to 36 months for my wife - ie no citizenship until about January 2016?
Timeline Summary:
Application sent - 1 Dec 2012.
Received - January 2013.
Processing started - March 2013.
RQ letter - 9 October 2013 (but contained incorrect details so sent back to CIC for correcting)...no further request yet.
But then...letter notifying fingerprints required - November 2013 (fingerprints submitted Dec 2013).
Notification citizenship exam will be required - Dec 2013 (but unlikely to happen due to wife being older than 54 years).
...nothing further so far...