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I'm sorry to ask, does anyone have a link for a thread or a FAQ that officially clarifies whether an independent character wtih infiltrate can join a squad without infiltrate and allow the whole unit to infiltrate?

No such FAQ exists. The best is Shrikes entry in the SM codex. That limits him to only joining Jump units before deployment, which is a pointless rule if ICs can't join units before deployment. But nothing concrete. The implication at least is that Shrike can do this but there is no ruling or RaW to support this.

To me it appears you can with any character but the RaI is not clear enough for me to say that with any certainty. I would definitely allow Shrike to.

Currently the consensus is 'no, you can not' join prior to deployment.

The rules have a specific order in which to join an Independent Character to another unit during this stage of setup. This order gives us two specific moments when we can join the Independent Character to the before mentioned unit. The first would be to deploy him within 2 inches of a unit already on the board, triggering a special rule letting them join before turn one. The second would be to announce the two units are joining when you put both into reserves, granting access to several other rules at the same time. The timing involved with Infiltration makes it impossible to do either of these things because the Infiltrating unit must wait till the normal units have made these choices.

As access to the special rule on the Independent Character is not shared till after deployment, when the units are officially joined, it is impossible to deploy the two units together. The unit you are looking to deploy with the Independent Character are forced to deploy prior to said character and once more within their deployment zone. Technically you could put the Independent Character with them during the Infiltration stage and join them together, but this makes the entire gambit moot.

Shrike was a hope that they would address this problem because his rules always required the concept of join before deployment but Game Workshop always seem more willing to ignore the issue entirely. If I remember right they did Frequently Answer Question this for 5th edition, specifically to let Shrike work but it also settled the matter for good, but the update to 6th edition stripped this from us. I will need to double check the current rules for Shrike, but if I am remembering correctly it is also once more in the 'broken' pile because of the above mentioned timing issue that originally broken him.

cool, thanks for the update. Just wanted to make sure I still wasnt missing something.

perhaps it could be said that when 2 things happen simultaneously it is left up to the controlling player to decide when it actually happens?

I'm betting all this has been discussed ad nauseum and (as you pointed out) there's no official ruling only a general consensus.

Jinx dragon is spot on with the RaW it is a clear no. It just means that Shrike has a rule that literally makes no sense. Saying he can only join Jump units before deployment, makes as much sense as a rule saying Shrike can only assault vehicles in the shooting phase...

That is a very clear indicator that Shrike at least can join units before deployment.

It is not a case of things happening at the same time. You must deploy a unit or place it in reserve before you can attach a character to it. If it is deployed or in reserve it can not infiltrate.

Well deployment into reserves or deployment on the board (as the generic rather than specific use of deployment) may be what it was going for.

Sorry liturgies I have no understanding as to what you think Shrikes rule does?

As in be joined to x type of unit before he is physically placed on the board. That is how it looks to me. Coming in from reserves is deployment(the action) but not Deployment(the game phase), so if he is in reserves he must be with a unit of assault marines as that is before he is deployed/before deployment.

RAW, no. But many larger tournaments ie BAO have in house FAQed it does.

As to Shirke, his rule makes sense, its just extremely poorly worded. It indeed does grant him permission to join a unit of Jump Infantry prior to deployment, he is the Only IC that has permission to do so.

But, in tournaments you play with the FAQ you are given.

To be honest, I was also thinking along the lines of Liturgies. there is a "Deployment step" during set-up and then there is the act of deploying(placing models on the table) which occurs during the deployment step. Other things that occur rather nonspecifically during the "Deployment step" include deciding if something is deep striking, starting in reserve, and flanking. At the time I read the rules, it seemed natural that adding independent characters to squads and starting squads inside of dedicated tranports occured generally during the "deployment step" as well.

in Liturgies' defense; when I read it, it wasn't clear to me which was intended. I'm inclined to believe that means that the rule is simply not clear.

I'm also inclined to think that once you are arguing about semantics, you should just let the TO decide and stop arguing.

regardless, thank you all for the input.
-Mark

there are numerous threads about this already, all of them ending with no real solution because both sides are fixated on how they read the rules for the proper "order" things are done at the start.

Until they finally FAQ it to allow it, i wouldnt try because the few races that actually can do it could pull of some really, really crazy stuff (Shadowsun infiltrating HYMP Broadsides for instance) and people who dont use those armies will fight hard to deny it.
That, or they FAQ it stating specifically what step things are deployed and when the ICs join, since thats the issue is when he/she joins the unit.

That, or they FAQ it stating specifically what step things are deployed and when the ICs join, since thats the issue is when he/she joins the unit.

Well the rulebook already specifically covers this. The issue isn't a lack of clarity in the rules as to when a character can join. That is very well and clearly defined. The issue is lots of other rules are written from a perspective that those rules don't exists or are different. This strongly implies RaI that the rules are not what the RaW states. That is the issue, the design team need to learn when characters join units or need to tell us when they can join units beyond what they've already told us.