Hey guys, sharing my info here just for the greater knowledge.
Both my wife and me applied within a week of each other, she applied online but I applied via mail (Paper). This was due to an issue with my travel records when border control failed to register one of my entries back to Australia, ie. it showed me exiting the country on 2 different occasions without the entry in between. I called and was told to either submit proof of my entry (which could take a few weeks to process) and try applying online again once the issue was corrected, or to apply by paper as even with the discrepancy in the record I met the eligibility criteria.
So to avoid the extra wait I submitted a paper application, however at the same time I still sent proof of the missing entry just to get the record right. It actually just took them a couple of days to process, however I had already sent the paper application. See below for our timeline.
Date applied: 05/12/2017
City/Council area: Melbourne
Online / Paper: Paper
Date received the acknowledgement email: 29/01/2018
Date of the Citizenship Test: 25/06/2018 *Passed
Date of ceremony: TBC
Type of ceremony (Urgent/Normal): TBC
Date applied: 02/12/2017
City/Council area: Melbourne
Online / Paper: Online
Date received the acknowledgement email: 02/12/2017
Date of the Citizenship Test: TBC
Date of ceremony: TBC
Type of ceremony (Urgent/Normal): TBC
When attending the interview/exam I asked the officer why hadn't my wife been contacted yet and he thought it was unusual but he couldn't provide more information, he advised to call the department and ask. When we called and explained the situation they didn't even bothered to ask for our details, just said applications are processed in different batches, and that they were still within the specified time frame ?