I called INZ to ask about this. We applied for a partnership work visa and when we applied the timeframe was 95% of applications get processed in 4 months. Now its 90% applications get processed in 5 months. In a reply to a general query i was told that this timeframe is for “applications approved for processing within the last 3 months”. This confused me as my application was approved for processing way beyond 3 months ago. Anyway the call center person explained that the processing time is “based on how many applications were completed within the 3 months prior, i.e. between 1 June and 1 September”. So basically it doesnt matter when your applications was submitted if you wanna compare to the processing time. It can be based on applications that were approved for processing months before but only completed in the last 3 months
Sorry about the rant