Keep major dependent plans flexible until the principal’s actual role and application strategy are settled. A family move may be difficult to reverse if resolving the employer’s disagreement changes the immigration assessment. Eligible family members need their own TD planning, and TD does not itself provide employment authorization.
Separate internal promises from family readiness
Ask whether the relocation team is working from the same finalized offer as the immigration preparer. A promised moving date, benefits start date, or school allowance may reflect an earlier draft. Record each family member’s citizenship and proposed travel so dependent requirements can be addressed once the principal’s plan is clear.
If the principal travels first, prepare updated status evidence for later family applications rather than relying only on the original offer letter. Three groups usually touch a family move, and each knows only part of it. A relocation vendor books shipping and housing.
The employer approves benefits. The adviser assesses status. None of them automatically tells the others when a date slips, so name one person on your side who holds the combined picture and updates it.
Write the dependency beside each family commitment: a school registration deadline, a lease start, a shipping collection. Then mark which of those turn on the principal’s application rather than on the employer’s internal calendar. TD dependents may study but are not authorized to work, so a spouse expecting to take up employment on arrival needs a separate conversation before the household budget is fixed on that assumption.