Is it not possible to enroll for Apple Developer anymore?
I've been trying to enroll for Apple Developer for over a month and nothing works.The Apple Developer app won't accept my Canadian passport for identity verification. The enrollment is for a Delaware LLC, so my Apple account region is set to US. I can't switch the account region to Canada either, because I haven't lived there in years and don't have a Canadian bank card.If I enroll through the website, the enrollment gets approved, I accept the term and, when it's time to pay, all my cards get declined. I tried ~7 bank cards (debit, credit, personal, business), all with matching billing addresses. All US cards. All the banks tell me they didn't decline transactions from Apple. I tried no VPN, VPN and residential VPN. I tried from my MacBook, iPhone, Safari, Chrome, incognito, non-incognito.Phone support is unavailable every time I check. I tried talking to regular Apple Store customer support but after repeating myself over 5 times with different agents, the last person I got transferred to told me they couldn't help with Developer stuff.If I email Developer support, they reply ~5 days later with unhelpful canned responses like "have you tried Safari incognito?", "you should try the Developer app instead" or "make sure your billing address matches your bank information". I'm at support email #9 and enrollment attempt #3.Has anyone had similar issues and been able to fix them?
FL score
out of 100
Verdict
high confidence
Competition
No competitor data yet
Trend
No signal yet
A tool or service to help developers stuck on Apple Developer enrollment due to identity and payment verification issues.
The pain
The gap
Build angle
Strengths
- Clear and documented user pain with Apple Developer enrollment
- Niche but real problem affecting international developers
- Potential to build a service that saves time and frustration
Risks
- Apple’s closed ecosystem limits intervention and integration
- Uncertain willingness to pay for a workaround service
- High dependency on Apple’s policies and potential changes
- Technical and legal complexity around identity verification and payments
Fly Labs Method
Is the pain real, is there a gap, is it the right time, can one person build it.
- Problem clarity
- 80
- Solution gap
- 60
- Willingness to pay
- 40
- Buildability
- 40
The problem is clear and frustrating but the solution space is narrow and willingness to pay is uncertain given Apple’s control and complexity.
Value Equation
Dream outcome and how likely it feels, against the time and effort it costs.
The pain is real but the market size and ability to monetize a fix or workaround are limited and unclear.
One-Person Business
Curiosity pull, identity fit, and a path from free value to paid for a solo creator.
The idea addresses a specific user pain but lacks a scalable business model or clear customer acquisition path.
Viral Frameworks
Hook strength, shareability, and how cheaply it can be tested.
The problem is valid but the solution is constrained by Apple’s ecosystem and the complexity of identity verification and payments.
Builder Lens
Evidence the problem exists, timing, defensibility, and a model that fits on a napkin.
The issue is a genuine user pain but the opportunity to build a startup around it is weak due to Apple’s gatekeeping and limited market.
Five lenses, one composite. How scoring works
The angle
No market research recorded for this idea yet.
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Consus (YC F24) – LLM gateway for companies handling sensitive data
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