After numerous contacts with Apple support, emails and phone calls, which have being going for for almost a month, this email finally arrives: Hello XXXXX,  YYYYY here from Apple Developer Program Support. Thank you for reaching out to us. We are currently experiencing a higher-than-normal amount of inquiries, as such, I do not have a timeframe in which this review will complete. We appreciate that completing your enrollment is very important to you, please rest assured that we are working to resolve your query as quickly as possible and a member of our senior team will be in touch with you as soon as more information becomes available. We ask that you do not submit any further payment attempts at this time, as this may delay the process. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to let me know. Your case number is XXXXXXXXX. Fingers crossed that this member of a senior team will finally get in touch and be able to actually resolve the issue.

The solution -- use Safari.  I am afraid it is not so simple. Safari has nothing to do with that. It is all to do with some multiple checks, aiming to detect a possible fraud at an early stage, well before it even gets to any payment. What is the most frustrating is that those developers (private or companies) who have being members for several years, suddenly can't renew membership. And nothing has changed for them - same Apple ID, same address, even same credit cards! And yet they can't renew. That makes them really angry at Apple. Especially when there is no meaningful feedback (or no feedback at all) from Apple's Developer Support why and what to do in order to fix it.

Yes, some of our customers have seen this message “Your enrollment cannot be completed“. No idea why. All of them had Apple ID linked to credit card in iTunes and had active subscriptions like iCloud space, music, apps etc. BTW, some comments suggested that you may try to use Developer App to enrol. Don't waste your time! I can categorically say that it doesn't work. If you are in one of those countries affected by the payment issues then during the enrolment process using the App, you will be redirected to the Web enrolment. And this is is essentially the same as to enrol using a browser via Apple Dev Site - https://developer.apple.com/account So back to the same problem.

We see multitude of issues with our customers. And they started around November 2019. Those who try to enrol anew spend anything between 2 to 8 weeks trying to pay membership fees. Typically only 1 in 10 submissions will work first time. They have tried everything: new apple ids, existing apple ids with purchase history, credit and debit cards linked to iTunes, cards from different banks - all to no effect. Both private (sole traders) and company enrolments fail. For company enrolments they pass verification calls and allowed to "pay" - sarcasm intended. Every time after a payment submission comes an email with 'processing of order may take up to 2 business days' and then nothing. No further comms about problems, no attempts to charge the debit or credit card - absolutely nothing. If they log a query with support via developer's web site, they receive a case number and standard response like this one: >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hello YYYYYYY, My name is *** with Apple Developer Program Support. I’m contacting you regarding your recent question. We have been unable to obtain payment for your recent Apple Developer purchase. Please contact your financial institution for more information. If you cannot resolve the issue through your financial institution and have received confirmation from Apple that your order could not be completed, you may place a new order using a different payment method. To prevent further issues, please follow these steps: • Use the latest version of Safari and clear cache and cookies before accessing the payment page. • Before placing the new order, notify your financial institution that you are expecting a charge from Apple and confirm that your billing information is accurate. • Be sure to use a payment method that is accepted for developer purchases in your region, as presented during the purchase process. • Confirm that all payment details match the information on file with your financial institution when submitting the new order. Thank you for your understanding. If you have additional questions please feel free to respond to this email. For your reference, your case is XXXXXXXXXX. >>>>>>>>>>> This is a total ****** response because not even an attempt has been made to charge the card. The same story repeats itself with existing customers who are trying to renew their membership, both for private and company memberships. They submit payments again and again and then nothing happens. Apple support keeps referring to alleged financial institution problems. Meanwhile membership expires and end users are left hanging high and dry, with their apps not renewed and their wallet passes dead. I myself recently tried to extend my membership for my Russian company's account. Tried with two credit cards - one issued by a Russian bank and another issued by a well-known European bank. Both submissions failed exactly the same way as described above - no attempt to charge any of the cards and no comms from Apple about any problems. Then in few days I used the same European credit card to extend membership for my European company. And miracle happened! My European card was charged straight away and in 30 seconds my membership has been extended. I thought something must've changed in the global process and I rushed to try to renew my Russian company's membership with the same European credit card. And got the same old story - no attempt to charge the card and as the result - expired membership. So the payment process at Apple is highly selective by country it seems. In Europe it works like a clockwork. In Russia (and in some other countries, judging by the posts in this thread) it it seriously flawed affecting hundreds of developers, both independent and companies. But more important, it affects hundreds of thousands of their respective customers who cannot get an updated app or functional passes in their Apple Wallet. It is time for Apple to start listening to groans and moans from the developer's community and fix the problem. It's being long overdue. I appreciate that Apple may be busy with transitioning away from x86 and designing new emojis but without keeping developers and end users happy nothing good will come out in long run. Thanks for your patience reading such a long post.