E-cheques are mode of electronic payments, and work the same way as paper cheques and are legally binding promise to pay.
PayPal payments are instant, regardless of the country of the sender and receiver of the money. The exception is when an "echeque" or "echeck" is sent. These can take around 10 days to clear to the recipients PayPal account, so make sure not to select the "echeque" option when choosing the fuding source.
When money is paid into your payPal account you should see it there almost immediately. The exception is if you have been paid by echeque and these can take around 10 days to clear into your PayPal account.
A PayPal payment can show as pending if you have received an echeque/echeck. This form of payment takes several days to clear. When it has safely cleared into your account the transaction will show as completed. Alternatively, the payment might have been sent to an unconfirmed email address in which case you would need to log into PayPal and manually accept the payment.
Paypal (in my experience) is usually pretty quick with processing transactions. I know when I've used it to pay for stuff on Amazon or eBay - the funds have been transferred within a day or two. If you feel you've been waiting a long time - you can instigate a dispute which Paypal will investigate.