The reason for the delay?
My service is invitation only. I had a 'login' and a 'request invite' screen in the app. The 'request invite' screen accepted the email address of the user requesting the invite.
Apple said 'We do not permit invitation only apps on the app store. Please remove the request invite button'. I tried arguing with them, citing popular apps (like pinterest) which behave identically.
But to no avail. I had to remove the button before they approved the process.
Apple were really thorough. They actually logged in using the credentials I provided and played with the whole end to end service.
They even called me to explain their original rejection.
So I was both impressed by their thoroughness, and miffed by their lack of standards.
On the whole, I don't like this approval process. It seems whimsical and is not good for the small-guys: sometimes they land hard on us, or at other times let total crap in, which devalues the trust people have on non-popular apps in general.