10 minutes is excessive, and it will usually timeout before then.
I have experienced many slow downs and I believe it is related to Matchmaking, and my ping times to Host PC's.
Often, you will actually "Show Up" in the lobby or game, before you ever get control. It is possible for the other players in the Lobby to vote kick you before you get to see them, which leads to interesting circumstances.
The solution, would be to reduce Ping times to the server.
How much bandwidth do you have to the internet?
Who is your ISP?
How are you connected?
Are other devices on your network causing interference?
Wired is faster than wireless, more bandwidth is generally better though games tend to not use much. Some ISP's and systems are more overburdened in your area than others. If your network is saturated, you may want to enable QoS to give Mass Effect 3 packets higher priority than filesharing or downloads, or netflix, or.... It is also possible that you have too many devices on your network and your Router is overburdened, in which case an upgrade may be necessary.
The short term solution is to hit Host Game instead, see if anybody shows up, start playing if it's short and see how many drop in during the match.
Another metric: Do you have the same issue when joining a friends game?
Also, how is your cennection in the games once they begin?