Apple ID recovery mode How long?

I bought a new Macbook Pro and tried to login only to find my account has been locked. I have not changed my password and I know exactly what it is. Apparently I have 2 factor authentication set up and my second identifier if an old credit card that I have no access to - including the 3 numbers on the back! I NEVER set up 2 factor authentication. I looked in old emails and found that on April 7 at 2 am, 2 factor authentication was set up for me, must have been fraudulent and I never caught the email until now. So, because I don't have the 2nd piece of info I am now in recovery mode. I have talked to multiple Apple support people and no one seems to be able to help me. It has been 19 days. Anyone else been in recovery mode this long? How the heck did someone else change the security setting to my apple account? Is there even hope that it will be recovered? I can't find any info online about how long this can take.

Start here, https://appleid.apple.com/#!&page=signin, or here, https://iforgot.apple.com/password/verify/appleid.

I have done all of that. When I do that, it asks me for the old credit card info. An old card that I have not had in years. I'm completely locked out and in "recovery mode." Not sure how long recovery mode takes.

I don't believe anything will proceed until you give it the info to move along. No one is doing anything for you on that account in recovery mode. The two-factor authentication is usually sending a SMS to an authorized device. It shouldn't be asking for your credit card info. Doing a recovery with the credit card info is a different story and I don't want to try that on my account..

I was told by Apple that someone is working on it and I should get a message about resetting the password in several days. They make it sound like someone is working on it and there is hope. I have no idea what to do from here. I am not sure how someone changed my security settings like that.

They are sending something to my phone (trusted device) with a code. The credit card is the second part of the 2 factor authentication.

Ahh OK, as long as they said they are working on remedy it. However, it shouldn't take days to have them ask you other information to confirm your identify and then either reset the password or have you reset it yourself..