An IVA will take a good month to set up - but I have done them in 24 hours if necessary, and I also have cases which have taken over a year to put together (for very good reasons I must add!). So there is no finate timescale, just one of good practice on the part of your insolvency practitioner.
Bankruptcy proceedings can be fairly immediate, but will depend upon the timing of your local Court's listing, so best to check with the bankruptcy clerk at the Court to see what sort of backlog they are running at.
Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.
For further details contact me at
http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at:
http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk