First-time app submission still not approved after a month. Are these review timelines normal?

App Store Distribution & Marketing App Review
Foxc OP
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Hey everyone,

My company is submitting its first iOS app, and we're hoping to learn from people who've been through this.

Here's our timeline so far:

  • Week 0 (Oct. 9th): Submitted the app for review.

  • Week 2: Submitted an expedited review request

  • 2 days later : Received our first rejection. Rejected because our app didn't include an account delete feature.

  • Resubmitted 2 days later with the requested feature.

  • Week 3: Created a support ticket requesting an update

  • 2 days later: Received a second rejection. The second rejection was under Guideline 5.1.2 (App Tracking Transparency). Our privacy labels marked data types as used for tracking. We've corrected them, confirmed we don't track users, replied to App Review, and resubmitted all within 30 min os rejection email.

Today marks exactly 1 month with no approval. The waits between each review have been roughly a week or longer, and we have events and physical marketing campaigns planned around the launch. We planned for 1 month of runway between submission and approval which is now gone and there is not clear idea on timeline...

Questions for the community:

  1. Are week-long (or longer) waits between submissions and rejections normal for a first-time submission, or does this sound unusual?

  2. Does a new developer account or first app submission tend to get extra scrutiny or slower reviews?

  3. Is there anything that helped you speed up the process, such as an expedited review request, contacting Developer Support, or a phone call with App Review?

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Etresoft OP

Today marks exactly 1 month with no approval.

Yes. I've noticed that people are starting to aggregate all their waiting and rejection times into one "time until approval", because that looks worse.

resubmitted all within 30 min os rejection email.

There is no benefit to quick resubmission times. In fact, it's a really bad idea. Over 80% of apps that get rejected will never be approved. So if you do get rejected, it's far better to take a really close, critical look at your app to ensure you aren't going to be rejected on the next submission. The more rejections you get, the closer you get to account termination.

Are week-long (or longer) waits between submissions and rejections normal for a first-time submission, or does this sound unusual?

This sounds unusual. Most people in your situation are waiting longer.

Does a new developer account or first app submission tend to get extra scrutiny or slower reviews?

I have seen people report that Apple is explicitly telling them that. But it's hard to say from this forum. Only people who have problems ever complain about it. There may be thousands of new developers sailing through with wait times measured in minutes or hours.

Is there anything that helped you speed up the process, such as an expedited review request, contacting Developer Support, or a phone call with App Review?

Me? I didn't do anything. My last submission was 1.5 hours waiting for review and another hour in review.

From what I can see here in the forums, the best advice I could give is - don't get rejected. To me, it sounds like Apple ran the numbers and decided that it wasn't a good idea to have app reviewers keep doing reviews on apps that probably aren't ever going to get approved anyway. Better to have them spend their time approving apps instead. And those numbers were from 2025. From what I understand, submissions are up 84% this year. So something had to give. People who get rejected are the ones forced to give.
isi1314 OP

Agree with Etresoft: the fastest path now is making sure the next review has nothing left to catch, rather than resubmitting fast. A quick checklist of what usually bounces next on a first app: a privacy policy URL that's live and matches the privacy labels; a working demo account in the review notes if there's any login; Sign in with Apple if you offer Google or Facebook login (4.8); no placeholder or "coming soon" screens (2.1, 5.6); in-app purchases attached to the version; and metadata and screenshots that match the build. With launch events planned, an expedited review request is fine to use once, after this pass.
advaita OP

I went through a similar run of rejections on my own app recently, so a few things that helped:

  1. Before the next resubmission, do a full pass against the usual first-app triggers, not just the cited guideline. Reviewers often stop at the first issue they find, so fixing only that can mean another rejection a week later. Check: account deletion is reachable in-app (not just a support email), the privacy policy is linked in-app and in App Store Connect, every permission prompt has a specific purpose string, and the demo account in the review notes works and skips any onboarding gates.
  2. Make the privacy labels match your SDKs, not just your own code. Analytics, ads or attribution SDKs (Firebase Analytics, Meta, AppsFlyer and so on) can count as "tracking" even if you never use the data that way. If any SDK links data to third-party data for ads or measurement, you need ATT, or you need to remove or configure that SDK.
  3. Write detailed review notes: what changed since the last rejection, exactly where to find it (e.g. "Settings > Account > Delete Account"), and demo credentials. That has saved me a full review cycle.
  4. Use expedited review once your build is clean. With dated events, explain the launch date in the request. It's granted at Apple's discretion, but it's worth asking.

Good luck with the launch!