Keep commitments reversible. School enrolment, a lease, a resignation, and a spouse's own notice period are all easier to delay than to undo, and the clearance timeline is set by parties outside the household.
Stage the family move behind the confirmed date
Decide which decisions genuinely have to be made before the first day and which can wait. A spouse and unmarried children under 21 may qualify for TD, with steps that depend on their own nationality; a US-citizen child does not need it. Remember that TD permits study but does not authorize work, so a spouse relying on employment income needs their own authorization rather than a remote arrangement.
Do not budget a second pharmacy income on an assumed informal role for the spouse. Provincial rules that treat cohabiting partners as spouses for taxes, benefits, or family law do not determine who counts as a spouse for this classification. Treat the principal's TN request and the spouse's proposed agency placement as two separate files, not one shared arrangement. Planning around the assumption that a second income will appear after arrival is the version of this that causes real hardship. The usual planning failure is signing a lease or childcare arrangement that assumes an unauthorized second salary.