a lot of users had stated it took them days to get their account approved, mine took only a week but after being with the site for months, I have learned there are faster ways like buying the account, some whales would also help out with creating it for you. I have two accounts in steemit, one I waited for a week and the other, a whale helped me set it up. i have not tried paying for the account though but a friend of mine did and it got approved in less than a minute.