Oh well... merits weren't an issue for me as well I obtained them in less than a year (357 days, precisely). But yes, the wait for obtaining the activity is huge. It passed 1 year from my first merit and I have to wait at least 1 more year from now on (for reaching 775 activity) and a maximum of 1 year and 8 months (for reaching the 1030  activity, if I'll have that bad luck to rank up at the maximum required activity). Patience is a virtue though...