We are a development team building an application targeted specifically for the Southeast Asian market. We have been caught in a frustrating review cycle and are hoping to get some guidance on how to move forward.
The Situation Our application is intentionally unavailable in the United States. Per Apple's guidance, we implemented a "We are currently not available in your country" error screen that displays when a user's location falls outside our supported regions. This is intentional, expected behavior — not a bug.
The Problem Despite providing detailed testing instructions and dedicated test accounts tied to the correct region, our
Reviewers consistently:
- Do not use the test accounts we created for them
- Do not follow the regional setup instructions we provided
- Access the app from a US-based location
- See the geographic restriction screen (the one Apple instructed us to build) Flag it as a bug and reject the submission
- We have confirmed this is the root cause, as the rejection notes reference the exact screen that Apple previously instructed us to implement. The reviewer spends fewer than 10 seconds in the app before rejecting.
What We Need We are stuck in a loop with no clear path out. We are asking for:
- Escalation to a reviewer who will follow the provided testing instructions and use the correct region/account
- Clarification on how to properly communicate geographic restrictions to the review team so this is not flagged as a defect
We have put significant effort into complying with every piece of guidance we have received, and we are committed to meeting Apple's standards. We just need a reviewer to spend more than a few seconds with our app using the correct credentials.
Any help escalating this or pointing us to the right process would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
App Name: Hustla App ID: 6756264790