Merchants can edit an affiliate approval status at any time, by either Declining and Removing them.
Note on the differences between Decline and Remove status:
If Declined, then Affiliate’s links will stop working but they will not be removed from the program, as in they will still appear in reports, the merchant’s Affiliate list, etc. They will just have a Declined status, so their links will stop functioning. An important part of this is that transactions will continue to track from valid clicks that occurred while they were approved, through the remainder of the tracking gap. As they still have a status in the program they will not be able to re-apply to the merchant’s program.
If Removed, then the Affiliate would be completely removed from the program. Their links wouldn't work, they would no longer appear in reporting or within the Affiliate list and no transactions will track to them (even from previous valid clicks per the tracking gap). However, as they no longer have a status in the program, they could re-apply to the program.
Merchants can easily change the status of any given affiliate, just by going to Affiliate List and searching for the specific affiliate they want to edit. Within the profile tile, they will be able to find a drop down option with different status options: