It took me around 10 months but it is doable in half that. I was working as an english teacher in a couple of institutes at the same time plus the fact that I arrived to Chile late last year when summer vacations were close and everything slows down. It took me like two months to get the medical certificate due to the fact I didn't have health insurance. Written tests are easy to get rid of although flight tests are scheduled for you in three weeks time or a month because of demand and low quantity of examiners.
And yes, the flight time was all credited. It was kind of weird though; in Canada your dual time goes PIC to the instructor. Here in Chile, dual time or better said, instruction time goes PIC to the student, so I guess here in Chile I have more PIC than in Canada hehe.
Now go figure how good of an idea is it to be an instructor in Chile with that regulation haha. The thing is I think there is no such thing as dual time in Chile, it is either PIC or copilot... yes, copilot; no matter if the aircraft is a certified two crew member or not.
DU