Not true. You can approve at any time.
Short answer: yes, you do have to wait until owner/moderator receives the "Re: Your pending subscription to the XXXXX group on Groups.IO" message before approving.
This is why I have requested the capability for new subscribers to include required info in their initial email to the group's +subscribe address. The Pending Member Notice is really not the ideal way to handle requests for additional subscriber information. Each email back-and-forth is an opportunity for things to go awry. Then owner/moderator is faced with additional tasks of keeping track of additional people on the "Pending Approval" list who for whatever reason do not respond with the required info; then we have to send followup emails requesting the information again, etc. And finally remove them from the Pending Approval list after a month or so of no response.
Drew
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