Moving NY State Retirement fun to TIAA – told 6-12 months to process it

My wife used to be a NY state employee, and the NYS Retirement system sent us a letter mid-December letting us know that they will need us to transfer her funds held by them since she is no longer a NY state employee. We elected for a direct transfer to her TIAA account. Easy, right? We called TIAA, they walked us through their side. We filled out the paperwork for NY, and mailed it in. Every few weeks, I ask for an update, still processing. She called today, and NY state retirement system says there is a standard 6-12 months processing window. This is crazy, right? Is there any statute or law that we could cite to speed things up? I'm afraid her funds are going to be sitting out of the market for a whole year.