gf:
I reread your question and to be more precise, you would have to receive clearance for maneuvering airspace above the MSA and be on established on the outbound course before the IAF was passes. How far before? Just enough to be wings level at an appropriate speed for the plane--minimum holding airspace with an additive for 30 degrees of bank should be right.
I can appreciate that local practices can vary significantly from country to country. The ICAO Obstacle Clearance Panel (OCP) has labored for many years that PANS-OPS will be implemented and used operationally the same in all PANS-OPS countries. That is still an elusive goal. Nonetheless, the design criteria, as it comes from ICAO, is that a course reversal will be preceded by an alignment holding pattern except where the course reversal can be entered with a maximum of a 30 degree course change.
I was answering the original post on PANS-OPS drawn procedures, not TERPS drawn procedures. I'm not running a international procedures class here, but a PANS-OPS course reversal must be entered from within 30 degrees either side of the outbound course and flown as depicted; the US FAA "stay within the airspace, but any holding entry is OK" technique will NOT work. But, as Aterpster has pointed out, there are good reasons to fly the outbound course in TERPS procedures.
My comments pertained to the conventional procedure turn (PT), of which there are less and less in the U.S. and the few other places that use FAA TERPs. The entry zone on a TERPs conventional procedure turn permits omni-directional entries (you may call the TERPs criteria for conventional PTs is divided into an entry zone and a maneuvering zone.) In the unusual case where altitude must be restricted until the aircraft passes from the entry into the maneuvering zone, and altitude restriction will be charted over the PT fix, example KJAC ILS 19:
http://aeronav.faa.gov/d-tpp/1104/00504ILZ19.PDF link valid for 40, or so days).
But, more and more common in U.S. TERPs is the holding pattern in lieu of PT (HILPT). With the HILPT all of the U.S. holding pattern rules must be observed, including speed and outbound time or distance limits (all RNAV IAPs have distance limits that increase with altitude). And, although the FAA asserts that their three methods of holding pattern entry (depending upon angle of entry) are optional, in fact they really are not, at least for jet airplanes flying right at the maximum authorized speed.