Ridiculously long wait time for password reset

The system then told her she would receive a notice when a new password could be established.

What you're describing is an account recovery, not a simple password reset.

Did she enter the original credit card used to set up the account as part of the recovery process? That can reduce the length of time significantly. It sounds like all she has provided so far is the original trusted phone number.

Have her sign in to iforgot.apple.com to do that and get an update on the process.

As you should know this is an Apple-product user-to-user forum. Apple representatives, including "Steve," may not respond to users' posts.

You are correct in that an Apple ID reset should not take more than a few minutes. Maybe a few hours in a rare set of circumstances.

I would suggest that you go to next level and contact the Apple ID Account Security Team directly to try to get this resolved.

One interesting tidbit I forgot to mention. Two weeks after she submitted the original reset request, she got tired of waiting, clicked "I forgot my password" again, got another 6-digit code, entered it again and was told by the system that she'd get a response later.

Rather important detail as your OP was about the "ridiculous" length of time this is taking.

She can go right now and try to add the credit card data to possibly shorten the wait. If she did not have a credit card on file, I don't believe there is a way to shorten the wait.

Recover your Apple ID with two-factor authentication account recovery - Apple Support

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