Just a comparison.....
I'm a french and canadian citizen....
For French authority to give me a french validation valid one year of my British CAA issued JAR ATPL took 8 monthes of enquiry....
Reason officially given: "JAR are the norms but We, French DGAC are THE AUTHORITY to check that Norms have been respected to give you the right to fly on a French registered aircraft... and we'll take the time to check each and every point..."
Take my Canadian ATPL licence, get to South Africa... it took just 15 days to prepare and do an Air law test and a Twin IFR test...
Lesson out of it: Go for a licence issued by an authority that doesn't keep your file on the desk just for the pleasure of saying that they have files to solve and so their job's important... Kapitch!