The survey questions must be completed and submitted annually. The purpose of the survey is to make sure all merchants are following good practices in preventing credit card fraud, which is a major problem in the U.S. Every year you will get emails to remind you to do the survey again. It is easier the second time around because you can state that nothing is changed from the first survey. When you do not do the annual PCI survey, you get dinged $29.95/month until you do the survey.