My request was approved online in four days - although this was after I had been requested four separate times to upload the same documents.
My partner was asked to visit the sales office with the documents. The sales office had never come across this before but having been shown the TK email they duly copied the required documents and sent the pack to TK HQ. After nine days, no response. So it seems to be ignored rather than rejected/approved.
Yeah, also wondering what the difference is.. the thing I suspect for my situation is: I have never flown with TK before, and just created a new Miles & Smiles account. I was wondering if it would've helped to book a flight first.