Since the case processing times for us Filipinos are slightly different than most applications from other countries, i decided to start a thread dedicated for this topic. this will be a really long post, so please bear with me 
we all know that the Norwegian Embassy in the Philippines have the power to make decisions on family immigration cases provided that certain conditions are met. This means that we can get decision at a faster waiting time, unlike when an application is forwarded to UDI which can take up to 9 months (or more) which is what normally happens to applications submitted in other countries. Most norwegian embassies in other countries dont have authority to make decisions, so applications are automatically forwarded to UDI..
a change had also happened when starting Feb 2015, the embassy had outsourced screening/accepting of documents for visa applications to VFS global.. that means that applicants no longer meet the case officer for submission of documents, which in my opinion, makes the decision making part more objective since there will no longer be an "interview" of sort and they will just be looking at our papers (which basically what happens at UDI).. this also gives a day or two delay for the embassy to receive the documents from VFS..
i had started a thread about getting married in Norway while on a Visitor's visa... feel free to browse thru it if u need some info about that topic..
moving forward, previous posts had proved that some residence permit application (under family immigration) received a decision after 2-3 weeks of submission.. some took more than a month.. some cases had received an email from the embassy within the first week of submission, that their case will be forwarded to UDI.. I had read someone received the UDI email after 2 months... these are all Filipinas who submitted applications in the Philippines..
for my case, i had applied with my daughter (from previous relationship) and it had been 2 months now since i had submitted our documents.. after 6 weeks of waiting, i decided to call the embassy for a follow-up.. they said that they received my application 2 business days after i submitted to VFS, and its still under processing coz they are still waiting for information from the police. what it is, they cant tell me coz its an internal process..
on the 8th week of waiting, my husband decided to call UDI to know if we had already been forwarded to UDI.. they said that a month ago, the embassy needed information from UDI, and UDI already returned the case back to the embassy... and it is up to the embassy now if they will make a decision or forward it back to UDI if it turns out to be a more complicated case..
a friend here on expat-blog had an observation that it seems like those who had been to norway dont get a decision in under a month, she too had been told about the pending info from the politi... so i decided to do some research in the webiste of Norwegian Directorate of Immigration - UDI which is the website for updates coming from UDI.. i did some further digging about the "info from the police", and here's what i found:
Section 17-7f The police
At the request of a Norwegian foreign service mission, the Directorate of Immigration, the Immigration Appeals Board or the Ministry, the police shall provide information on the conduct, of a foreign national .....
.... Information on conduct in accordance with the first paragraph includes information about whether the foreign national has been sentenced to a penalty or other criminal sanction or other measures as a result of committing an offence, or is the subject of a criminal prosecution; see also section 36, first paragraph (1), of the Police Register Act. In cases under the first paragraph (m), information may also be collected about identity.
At the request of the Directorate of Immigration or the Immigration Appeals Board, the police shall provide information about whether the applicant is being investigated for a criminal offence that may have a bearing on the application, in cases concerning suspension under section 62, second paragraph, of the Act and cases concerning expulsion under section 122 of the Act. The duty of the police to provide information under this paragraph only applies where the interests of the investigation do not argue against providing the information.
source: Immigration Regulations - pdf file
my assumption is that for those who had been to norway for a longer period of time or given number of times, part of their requirements is a "Certificate of Conduct" (vandelsattest/politiattest) of the applicant from the police.. the certificate can take up to 4 weeks to get from the politi/police.. so i suppose those who submitted their application in the Philippines, can take more than a month for a decision because of this particular requirement.. i had been to Norway for a total of 5 months divided into 4 vacations.. my theory is that those who had been to Norway for more than 3 months OR been going there more than once will need a certificate of conduct from the police.. this is just my assumption tho, based on what the embassy told me what part of the process my case is still "pending" and after reading the immigration regulations..
so i believe that those who get decisions in under a month, did not need a politi certificate of conduct (those who had never been to norway, or been there in under 3 months)... but for us who need them, need to add another month of waiting, or maybe less depending on how busy the politi is..
so until now, we are still waiting... 
its been 2 months..
please feel free to discuss your waiting times after u submitted ur application in th Philippines... i maybe wrong for my assumptions so feel free to discuss your experiences on this matter... thank you and i wish us all the best 
