It depends upon the program. There are thousands of programs available and each one is operates differently. It can take as little as a few weeks or as long as 6 months. Some programs even brag that you will get an answer with 10 working days. This may seem impossible because it’s hard getting the government delivery of mail that fast.

You should realistically allow a few months for something. The first program you choose may not be right for you and you may look in Matthew Lesko 's book for other programs. Or, for some extremely competitive programs, it may take a failed application just for learning the system.