What determines a processing centers average time ?

[InLoveWithAnAmerican]

Why Brazil 5 months but Ottawa 17?

 

[Aquakitty]

Why Brazil 5 months but Ottawa 17?

Those aren't averages, they are worst-case times. I believe they mean that 80% of people will be processed FASTER than those times. Brazil is fast perhaps because they only process Brazil, whereas other VO's deal with multiple countries. Also, perhaps there aren't that many Brazilians who are immigrating to Canada. This is just speculation though.
Ottawa likely has a lot more to deal with, however, our app was processed through Ottawa nearly as fast as Brazil. So, the only way to get an accurate picture of the ACTUAL time it will take is to look at spreadsheets of real-life times people have experienced.

 

[DanSlh]

Brazil receives less than 300 spousal applications per year, that explains the reason why it takes 20 days to process the stage 2.
See the open data and you will see the difference and will understand what Aqua said above.
Ottawa takes 8-10 months to process stage 2.

 

[keesio]

Why Brazil 5 months but Ottawa 17?

Take posted VO processing timelines with a grain of salt. There are a lot of factors involved when CIC determines the processing time. Also note that the Ottawa VO handles many types of applications, not just US citizens. non-citizen US residents (such as people on work and student visas in the US), etc. They also get "overflow" from other VOs. So that number you see may not always apply to yout particular case.