Long delays in Office 365 subscription being set (4271626)

After adding users to a mailbox synchronization you may find that the Office 365 licence plan subscription is not being set for a substantial length of time.

The DMA may log the following error sequence when the agent tries to set the UsageLocation in Office365 (MSOL):

The explanation received from Microsoft was as follows:

'The underlying issue is related with sync delays between our two platforms, Exchange Online and Azure Directory. To give a quick background, when a user is normally created, it’s created primarily on the Azure Directory and then synced to the correspondent platform services, Exchange Online, etc. During the current procedure, where a mailbox is being migrated, the user/mailbox is first created on the Exchange Online side and then back-synced to the primary location (Azure Directory). In some occasions, this could take some time, at least more than normally should be expected.'

In our experience the delays can vary considerably and may be days before their platforms are ready for our agents to proceed.