how much time does it take to set up my Apple Developer account so I can provision my app and run it on a device?
Here's the thing, I don't even have to have a Developer Account to deploy my app to my device.  

Instead, all I had to do was connect the device to my Mac Mini.
When I did that XCode recognizes the device and allows me to deploy and run the app on the device.

I hadn't seen this possibility anywhere, but now that it's possible, it doesn't matter to me so much how long I have to wait for the developer account to be officially set up, since in the wait time I can develop my apps and test them on my locally connected ipad.

As I was writing this answer, I went back to XCode and was building a new app when I suddenly saw the following message:


I couldn't believe it.  I was so excited because I could build apps for my local pad and now suddenly it has limited me until I buy a Dev Account.  Apple, I'm going to buy a dev acct and I obviously cannot deploy or sell my app to anyone without your permission.  Why would you make it this difficult?  Ridiculous!!

EDIT
Wow. Now I just googled for that and found the following Apple Forum :
https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/49304

Someone there mentions that you just have to uninstall other apps from your device and it should work again. I had two other test apps on my device so I uninstalled them and I was able to deploy to my device again.