i have 2 account with cj.
the first one i shot myself in the foot as i declare it an incentivized site.
by doing so, it will make you even more difficult to be accepted by the merchant
so i created a second account as a non incentivized site
i got more acceptance for it
and, you can contact directly the affiliate manager of the program
i was once rejected for a insurance program, and i contact the program manager directly.
she will simply need you to justify that your way to promote the site is good enough and they will approve you
i heard that if you sign up using an australia account, you get better result, but i could not verify that
anyway, if looking for pay per lead, guess the other way is to of course sign up for cpa network directly