Weigh employment, schooling and caregiving against the fact that everyone joining is already in the application. A principal moving first may be settling housing while a spouse finishes a contract. That choice is practical, not a shortcut around cost, since each person's US$15,000 fee and US$1,000,000 gift apply regardless of arrival order.
Think through the months apart
Agree how long the household is willing to be split and what would trigger a change of plan. Consider who supervises children, how a partner's employment is protected, and what happens if one person's step takes longer than another's. Discuss with counsel how a delay for one family member affects the others.
Households often find the emotional and financial cost of a long separation shapes the plan more than the immigration steps do. Add one further question to that discussion of the months apart: what would make the household reverse the decision, and who has the standing to say so. Separations planned as temporary extend for reasons that are individually reasonable — a school term, a work commitment, a delay nobody controls — and a family that has not agreed in advance what would trigger a change tends not to make one.
Write the trigger down alongside the plan. Hypothetical example: a household agrees at the outset that if the separation passes a stated number of months without a defined milestone being reached, the plan is revisited rather than extended by default, which converts a drift into a decision that somebody actually makes.