No shared decision date is guaranteed. Coordinate the applications while recognizing that derivative eligibility depends on the principal and that an individual history can require additional review. Plan the business opening around actual work authorization, and keep the household’s travel arrangements flexible enough to accommodate different outcomes or dates.
Two calendars, and a lease that respects both
Set milestones you control — records retrieved, investment evidence assembled, counsel's read on the refusal — and avoid commitments keyed to a decision date nobody can promise. Remember also that a visa's expiry is not the same as the period of stay recorded on admission; the two are read from different documents. Build the family's housing and school decisions so a later spouse arrival does not break them.
Use the effective agreement and actual funding history, with any material change explained. Identify the unresolved amount and assess readiness against the actual evidence. A buyer who closes first owns a U.S. dealership while still in Canada, which is lawful but leaves the business without its operator if the visa is delayed or refused. The investment has to be in place, irrevocably committed and at risk, before the application is decided. A contingent escrow can sometimes address visa risk, but its actual terms control.