I requested to move my AWS SES account out of sandbox mode, but it has been five days since I received any response. The delay is holding up my project, so I'm trying to figure out whether this wait is normal or whether I should follow up with more information. Has anyone had a similar experience, and would switching temporarily to another email provider make sense?
4 Answers
My request was approved in roughly a day, but another person I know waited over a week. A generic description like “transactional email” may lead to extra review, while explaining password resets, verification messages, invoices, or alerts in detail gives the reviewer more confidence that the account won’t be used for spam.
The fastest approvals I’ve seen included detailed justifications and sample email templates. Instead of sending another vague follow-up, update the support case with the exact types of messages you’ll send, how users opt in, estimated volume, sample subject lines and bodies, and your bounce, complaint, and suppression process. Also mention your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup if it’s ready.
Approval times vary a lot. Some requests are approved within a few hours or a day, while others take more than a week if they go through manual review. Five days is frustrating, but it isn’t completely unusual. Requests tend to move faster when they clearly explain the use case, how recipients are collected, expected volume, and how bounces and complaints are handled.
If this is holding up something time-sensitive, paying for the least expensive support option for a month may cost less than losing another week. You can also prepare a fallback provider, but I’d still improve the SES request rather than relying on a provider switch alone.
That makes sense. I’d also include whether any messages are promotional, along with an unsubscribe or contact process for those messages. If the delay is blocking a launch, a temporary provider such as Twilio, SendGrid, or Postmark could help, although the same bounce and complaint controls will still be needed.