Was the same for me - first contact was beginning of October, we agreed on everything by the end of October, and the Visa and everything was ready by December - plane landed on December 17th...

So it's the Visa procedure that takes so long...but get used to it, as soon as you're here, you will see that the attitude of many people and companies is just like this...quite understandable with 50 degress ;-) (this is the excuse I think of whenever I get upset from someone who is slooooooooow again...)