Expedited Review granted – App still “Waiting for Review” after 6 days

Has anyone experienced a similar delay recently

Yes. There are multiple identical posts here in the forums every day.

especially after an expedited review was granted?

There is no "especially". Virtually all of those posts indicate that an expedited review was also requested. It's become automatic. As such, it can no longer possibly be considered "expedited" in any sense as it's constantly full of problematic apps that have experienced multiple rejections.

Is there anything else we should do, or should we simply keep waiting?

You should keep waiting. Regardless of your reasons for seeking an expedited review, the long-term solution is the same. Do a better job of pre-release testing to ensure the app won't be rejected and won't require an expedited review in the future. You don't have to wait for that. You can start code reviews and test plans right now. Even in the worse case, Apple will complete the review before you can get a better code-review-test-release pipeline going.

Don't believe what you've been told about software development for the past 30 years. The Waterfall model is, and always was, the Gold Standard. Big companies like Google, Apple, etc. control their markets and users in ways that small developers don't. We aren't like them.

Thanks for your response.

Just to clarify, this is our first App Store submission for Virtual Pro Association. The app has not been rejected before and has never entered review yet. It has simply remained in “Waiting for Review” since September 28.

Our expedited review request was accepted by Apple, but the status still hasn't changed. We've also contacted App Review Support and are currently waiting for their response.

Given the number of similar reports appearing recently, we'll keep the current submission in the queue and wait. Thanks for the information.

Just to clarify, this is our first App Store submission for Virtual Pro Association. The app has not been rejected before and has never entered review yet.

That's good then.

It has simply remained in “Waiting for Review” since September 28.

So it hasn't even been waiting a week yet. I've seen many people report getting a message from Apple specifically telling them that their first submission is going to take longer than normal. I think a sub-week delay would have always been in the "normal" range, even before the deluge of AI slop.

Someone else was recently complaining about being rejected under the 4.3 spam category. It's always a bad sign when people know the specific paragraph number of a rejection and expect everyone else to know that too.

So I ran the numbers based on the most recent Apple App Store Transparency report.. If every 4.3 spam rejection results in a resubmission with expedited review request (as it sometimes seems here in the forums), then given the number of those rejections, the expedited review queue would have over 1,100 requests just from 4.3 spam rejections - per day. And that 4.3 spam rejection isn't even the most common rejection. And that transparency report is from last year, before the flood of AI slop. It's going to be a challenging time until the AI fad fades.

We're seeing the same delay. Adding our case here in case it helps App Review look into the late-September submissions together.

• App: Fashion Arena: Dress Up Game
• Apple ID: 6808930858
• Version: 1.0.1 (update to an existing app)
• Submitted: September 25, 2026
• Case number: 102979636472
• Current status: Waiting for Review (unchanged since submission)

What we've checked so far:

• No messages, alerts, or "Information Needed" items in App Store Connect
• Contacted App Review Support and replied to their follow-up
• Other apps submitted after this one were reviewed within 1–2 days

@App Review, could you please check whether this submission is stuck or needs anything from our side? Thanks in advance, and good luck to everyone else waiting.

We are also seeing the same delay. We will also be adding our case here incase.

• App:sydHustle
• Apple ID: 6799896230
• Submitted: September 28,2026
• Current status: Waiting for Review (Unchanged since submission)

App Review, kindly look in to this, THANKS.

Hi, you are not alone. My approved Expedited Review was also ignored. My app was stuck in "Waiting for Review" for 12 days, and now it has been completely frozen "In Review" for 9 days straight.

Support only sends automated templates. Including an enrollment glitch, I am on Day 38 of waiting. Adding my details here in hopes an Apple Engineer manually clears this backend queue issue for both of us.

| Team ID: 8A9595UHD7 Case IDs: 102987332129, 102986862146

It was rejected due to metadata issues; I’ve fixed it now. I hope there won't be any further problems and that it doesn't take another 8 days.

after 24h still waiting....

I am clearly not the only developer experiencing this issue. Other developers are reporting the same delays, including cases where expedited reviews were accepted but their apps remained stuck in “Waiting for Review”.

This raises a serious question: what is the point of an expedited review if there is no visible progress, no meaningful update, and no clear timeline?

My app, Virtual Pro Association, was supposed to launch at the beginning of October. Our new FC Pro Clubs season starts on October 19, and this delay is directly affecting my launch plans.

I have paid for the Apple Developer Program and invested months of work into this project. I am not asking Apple to bypass its guidelines. I am asking for the review process to work as intended and for developers to receive meaningful communication when something goes wrong.

Could an Apple representative please provide a concrete update on my submission rather than another generic response?

Independent developers deserve better communication and a review process they can realistically plan around.