Just an update.
I now received my Approval in Principle letter dated 15 September 2012. So they seem to be working pretty quickly these days.
Now I have to scramble to get a certificate of no criminal conviction from three countries. As an added complication the Immigration Department requires a certificate from the Public Security Bureau in China, while I lived in HK before and no such bureau exists in HK. I think they made a mistake, anyone else had this experience?
The stress never stops with QMAS!