I'm pretty sure that if your Info.plist file has the Status bar is initially hidden value set to YES, then it won't show while your application is loading. Once your application has loaded, you can re-show the status bar using UIApplication's setStatusBarHidden:animated: method.
Following up Dave's answer the key "Status bar is initially hidden" didn't work for me under iOS 4.3 BUT the key "UIStatusBarHidden" and then setting it's type to Boolean and checking the box did the trick.
The correct key in .plist is "UIStatusBarHidden" and make checked right side.It'l become "Status bar is initially hidden" then automatically. In my practice, you can control the StatusBar's show/hide anywhere by when hide: