How long will it take?

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I am in the process of going to a Psychologist to have an official diagnosis for AS (my 1st visit will be Sept 5th), and I realize this may be a difficult question to answer as everyones situation is different, but I was wondering if there is an average time table on how long it takes to be diagnosed?
In other words, per my insurance coverage and financial standing I'm hoping I can get this over with ASAP. It doesn't seem to me that the process should be too lengthy, but I really don't know what all they expect out of you.

Basically, I'm just wondering about your personal experiences if you have gone through the process of obtaining a diagnosis and how long it took, how resent it was, and any other things I should be aware of/prepare for.

it depends on how complex and obvious it is.
it can be assessed and diagnosed in one/ or/and another one appointments,it can take months of appointments for some.
but the more complex, and less obvious-both are likely to see it take a lot longer before they give a diagnosis of some sort.
eg,a person might have other things besides autism or as which makes it harder to diagnose.
eg,a person might have learnt to copy NTism,so might not be obviously autistic or aspergan to doctors.

I had a two and a half hour appointment. She was convinced more and more with each question I answered, not including the fact that I shook her hand too long and have a extremely monotone voice. Half hour before we were the end of the time, she "unofficialy" confirmed it initialy (since she has to go through other paper work), and gave me the detail report the next week.

Then again, I was seeing a different counselor for a few months before I even knew what aspergers was. I had other problems I was dealing with, and eventualy she said the patterns of my life seem akin to apsergers, refered me, and it was easy after that. Best $250 I spent in my life (I don't have insurance, but at least gives student discounts) to have everything confirmed and understand myself more.

It took me a year until I got my diagnosis.

Couple hours.

Wow, why a year? Were you aware that you may be autistic? Or did they find out along the way?

I am hoping that because I have been doing research and I can look back over my life and point to all the specifics that make so much sense now that the doc will see it too. naivety or not, I had planned to go to see someone about Social Anxiety a while back but never was able. I'd imagine then it would have taken a while to find a roundabout AS diagnosis (if any) had I not known it was even a possibility.

I'm having my first meeting with my new psychiatrist next Friday, and just had a conversation on the phone with the nurse. I'm going to spend some time this weekend writing down symptoms I think I have, and also for my OCD (which is the primary reason I'm going, anyway) on her advice. Don't know how hard we're going to push at getting an AS diagnosis, I don't feel like I need one, but it may help out with the OCD, so we'll see (he's an OCD specialist, not an Autism Spectrum Disorder specialist, but the Autism guys have waiting lists into the years here in "medically underserved" New Mexico, and I didn't want to have to wait that long). I'll try and remember to post here depending on how fast things move.

My 7 year old was diagnosed after 2 sessions with a Paediatrician. Between the first and second session we had an IQ test done.

My 9 year old was diagnosed when he was 8. He was diagnosed after 1.5 hours with the psychologist (at Tony Attwood's clinic in Brisbane, Australia).

Helen