Compare the two plans against each child’s eligibility, admission arrangements and care needs as well as school dates. E dependent children must be unmarried and under 21, so waiting can affect eligibility. Neither a parent’s preferred moving date nor a pending application grants status, and no shared decision date is guaranteed.
Watch the child's twenty-first birthday
A child qualifies as a dependent only while unmarried and under 21, so a teenager's age is a planning fact worth writing down early. Consider whether a mid-year move or a September start suits the household better, and how often the investor can travel back while the spouse remains employed. Keep each child's passport validity and status expiry on the same calendar as the parents'.
This decision has a hard edge the rest of the plan does not: a child ages out at twenty-one, and no arrangement between the parents changes that date. Work backwards from it. If a child will turn twenty-one within the horizon the household is planning across, that child's step is scheduled first and the rest of the plan accommodates it rather than the reverse.
If no child sits near that edge, the choice is genuinely about schooling, care and travel and can be made on those grounds. Say which situation the family is in before the discussion begins, because the two conversations run by different rules and mixing them produces a plan that satisfies neither.