Apple should really just send an email detailing what's wrong instead of having developers playing this guessing game. I have tried everything suggested here and none of them helped. It's funny that making a single payment is more frustrating than debugging a whole app.

Fortunately, I have found a solution to the problem, where a client of mine obtained her license in 24 hours by following these steps: On your iPhone or any apple device you must download the apple developer app. Link is in the description. Make sure the card you are going to buy the apple license with is the same card currently linked to your apple id. The card may not be linked to any other apple id. One apple id = one card. Login to the apple developer app with your apple id and enrol in the apple developer program via the app. If you encounter a delay of 24 hours, then email apple developer support and tell them your card can buy songs and apps so there is no reason it cannot buy an apple developer license. If still not approved, follow up by buying a song or an app, and send apple support that snippet of your bank statement proving that your card does in fact work to purchase from Apple. I've seen that solution too. The problems are: Enrollment through the Apple Developer app isn't available in every country. Apple support doesn't decide whether your order should be approved or not. So even if they wanted to help, the best they can do is give you an exception and allow a direct wire transfer. This is a workaround, not a solution, and doesn't happen all the time. I haven't seen any solution that works for everyone, so I'm quite sure this is a problem on Apple's end and only they can solve it.

I don't understand how they haven't fixed this issue after more than 6 months. It's like they're intentionally ignoring it.

I'm having the same problem too (country: Vietnam). Don't bother contacting support because all they'll basically say is: "The problem is on your bank's end. Ask them". I've been waiting for 3 weeks by now. Since this is clearly a bug on Apple's end, the long term solution is to file a bug report and hope they'll fix it.