First establish what the notice says about the spouse’s own process. A principal’s update is not automatically the family’s permission to enter or reside.
Check each intended person against the record
The current family terms concern an eligible spouse and unmarried children under 21 identified initially. Each joining eligible relative has additional US$1 million and US$15,000 amounts, but inclusion and payment do not remove the need to follow that person’s applicable steps. Look at the addressee line first, then at every place in the body where a person is named.
A notice concerning the principal establishes nothing about a spouse or a child unless it names them and says something about their process. Build the travel plan from the weakest link rather than the strongest: the person whose steps are least advanced sets the earliest realistic date for a joint move, and planning around the principal alone is how families end up separated on a departure date. Keep arrangements refundable or changeable wherever the plan depends on an outcome nobody controls, and avoid announcing a date to a school, a landlord or an employer that the record does not support.
Where intended family members were identified at the outset, keep that list and check each notice against it, since a name absent from a notice is a question to raise rather than an omission to assume harmless.