After looking at a dozen or more posts on here about how to create a link to open your application in the App Store, none of them have worked (most are from '09-'10).
Many of those posts even say it should work before submitting your app, as long as you have made the app in iTunesConnect, and copy the app id there.
When I try the "View in App Store" link in ITC it says: "The item you've requested is not currently available in the U.S. store."
My app binary has not been submitted yet, is it possible to test this link at this point?
You cannot view apps in the iTunes store that have not been approved yet. That means the links won't work until the app has gone through the review process. The URL for the app store link should look like this:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/YOUR-APP-NAME/idNUMBEROFYOURAPPHERE?ls=1&mt=8
You can get the app number in the "Manage Applications" link of iTunes connect. This technique hasn't failed for me yet.
Hope this helps!