ARNG Officer Promotion Packets - Is it ever possible to pin on or shortly after your minimum TIG or is that when the packet can be submitted?

Time in Grade requirements for federal officer appointments are established under US Code Title 10. For consideration past Captain, the law states that officers will not be considered until they meet the required TIG. For more junior officer, the law specifies that promotions cannot be prior to the statutory TIG requirement. According to North Carolina's Article 3, § 127A, state promotions will follow the federal rules.

It appears you are asking what North Carolina or federal regulation prohibits you from submitting a promotion packet prior to being qualified for promotion. It might be more interesting question to frame the question from the other perspective: is there any North Carolina or federal regulation that requires the S1 that you said "is unwilling to proceed until the TIG requirement is met" to "proceed" before you meet the legally-mandated minimum requirements? But for the time being, I'll consider what I think your question is, of whether there's a regulation prohibiting unqualified officers from submitting a promotion packet. While I found no definitive information on an only cursory scan of publicly accessible NC Guard sites, my speculative expectation is that there is no regulation prohibiting you from submitting a packet, but there is probably some sort of instruction document published by the state governing the board that will lay out in black and white whether or not you are within the board's zone of consideration.

If the North Carolina officer promotion process has the officer manually developing a physical or digital packet to submit, I would expect there to be a memorandum of instruction, letter of instruction, or some other document that identifies the steps for the Soldier to follow, the qualification criteria for consideration, and some business rules for Commanders, S1s, and the board. If so, before your S1 validates your packet or your Commander endorses it/recommends you for promotion, they are likely to screen it to determine whether or not you're actually qualified. It's hard to imagine a Commander deciding to underwrite the promotion packet of someone who is objectively unqualified, whether by a few months or a few days. And even if he or she does, the board is likely to disregard any packets that do not meet the criteria specified in those instructions.

Even if it's not a manual process, if it's automated like a centralized promotion board, I would expect there to have been some sort of information published about whom the board would consider, how to check and correct your automated record, et cetera. But similarly, either you meet the cutoff or you don't and if you don't you won't be considered.

If you're not tracking that kind of information about the board, ask for it.

LT Goss: Just to clarify, you aren't the one who submits your promotion packet; your BN S1 will. Part of that packet is an endorsement memo from your BN CDR. It's been my experience that units won't submit packets until you meet the minimum TIG/TIS requirements. Even if the unit did submit the packet then it would probably be returned by the state promotion board.

It seems that in the absence of orders, attack. It certainly wouldn't hurt to get a packet put together and sent up to higher while still wrapping up the tail-end of your current TIG requirement. The worst that can happen is they say "no, just hold on until you reach your TIG." You wouldn't be reprimanded or counseled for it, at least. So there's no reason not to, to test the water. Best of luck, sir!