I applied on May 25th 2017. After filing an inquiry, an immigration officer emailed me and said initial applications can take up to 11 months. After 11 months it will be considered late. Also, that they can't speed up the process because the applications are reviewed in the order they are sent. Trust me I have done everything to speed up the process and nothing seems to work. But it doesn't hurt to try.

My application is still pending and it's been 8 months. It's at the California Service Center

Hope this information helps in any way.