What Does It Mean If Your Uber or Lyft Application Stalls?

Not every person who applies to drive with Lyft or Uber will be approved. However, very few candidates get rejected outright. Many drivers wind up with an application that’s pending, and stays that way, sometimes for weeks. This can happen for a number of reasons including:

If you’ve been driving in your state for less than a year.
Sometimes, there are duplicate accounts in the system from prior applications, and that’s holding your current application up.
Very old major (reckless, dui etc..) traffic violations (10 – 15 years).
One or more driver requirements is not satisfied.
One or more vehicle requirements is not satisfied.
A local or state regulatory agency is holding up the approval.

These are just a few of the reasons Lyft or Uber applications stall. There are others. Over the years, Lyft and Uber have become more careful with their background checks and have made their approval processes more stringent. This is great overall, but it also means that getting approved often takes longer.

How Long Does It Take To Get Approved For Uber or Lyft?

Lyft
Getting approved to Drive With Lyft usually takes between six and eleven days. However, I’ve seen approvals happen in three days, and others have taken three or four weeks.

Uber
Getting approved to drive for Uber usually takes five to seven days. As with Lyft, it can often take weeks as well.

As you can see, there is a lot of variation when it comes to approval times. However, it’s important to keep in mind that, unless it’s been a couple of weeks, your application probably hasn’t stalled. The background check alone can take over a week. To check the status of your Uber background check, click here. The approval wait time mostly depends on how many people have signed up recently. The more sign ups, the longer the backlogs at the background check companies. So, after applying, don’t sweat it if you haven’t been approved after a week. Wait another week before taking the following steps.

What You Can Do To Get Your Stalled Uber Or Lyft Application Approved

Having your Lyft or Uber application stall on you can be very frustrating. Luckily, there’s a couple of things you can do to try and resolve the situation.

Contact Support

Your first step is to contact support and inquire on the status of your application. To contact Lyft, click here. To contact Uber support, click “account” in the driver app, and then “help”.

Your message should be polite, but specific. Something along the lines of:

Hi,

I submitted my application a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to see if something in particular is holding up my approval. If there is, please let me know what the issue is and if there is anything I could do to help move the process along.

Best regards,
Your name

One of two things will happen. You’ll receive an email back eventually that A. tells you what the issue is and if you can help resolve it, or B. contains a canned, and probably unhelpful email response. If A happens, great. Hopefully, you received an answer that means your application will be approved soon. If B happens, you can try replying to the email and again asking very politely if they can tell you anything or if there’s any way you can help.

Visit A Hub

If the second attempts doesn’t work, your next step is to go to a Lyft Hub or an Uber Greenlight Hub, if there’s one near you. If you google “lyft hub your city”, you should get the closest Lyft Hub location and their phone number. They generally can’t help drivers over the phone, but you can always ask.

Odds are, there’s a Uber Greenlight Hub within an hour of you, as there are over 100 of them. Lyft hubs are currently only in about 20 cities. When you go to either Hub, bring any documentation you think you may need (insurance or licensing info, etc…). Explain your situation and politely ask if they can give you any information as to what’s holding your application up. Hopefully, the people at the hub can give you a bit more information. Sometimes, it’s as simple as getting them some additional documentation or information.

Taking these steps may not always work as Uber and Lyft support are limited as to what they can do. They will likely not be able to approve you on the spot, but they may be able let you know what is going on with your application, and may be able to let you know when you’ll be approved.