The location at which a student takes his or her exams does not affect the time at which their paper is marked by the CAA.
Before marking any of the papers the CAA wait until they have received the papers from all of the schools under their control. They then examine and decide upon all appeals that have been made, before starting to mark the papers. The papers are then marked by computer.
The results for schools in Spain and the US are sent by FAX. In an attempt to ensure that all students get their results on the same day, the FAXes are sent, on the day after the results are posted to students in and around the UK.
None of this can of course prevent delays with the delivery of individual envelopes to individual students. It is also true that the CAA occasionally make mistakes. One of our students failed to be sent any results for the January exams. This problem was resolved by my making a telephone call to the CAA exams staff, who then sent the results to us by FAX.
Any student who has not yet received their results for the February exams should contact their school or the CAA.
After each set of exams, this forum includes a string in which one or more students ask when the results will be released. The CAA quarantee that they will release results within 10 working days after the end of the week in which the exams were taken. Throughout the past year or so they have done better than this, with the majority of results being on students' doorsteps on the second Wednesday (7 days working) after the exams.
Each school eventually receives a table of the results for all of their students, but this usually takes a further week or more.