No. A joining spouse must be considered in the initial application and carries a separate nonrefundable US$15,000 fee plus a further US$1 million gift; the same applies to each unmarried child under 21. Inclusion is a decision made at the start with its own cost, not an automatic benefit attached to the principal's case.
Ask which partner should be the principal
When both partners have careers, it is worth asking counsel which of them the case should be built around. The choice affects whose eligibility is examined, whose documents carry the case, and how the household's employment plans line up with each step. The financial amounts do not change with the answer, since each joining family member costs the same either way, but the analysis of eligibility and timing can differ meaningfully.
Work the total out on paper before any conversation about which assets to release. Multiply the per-person amounts by the actual number of intending immigrants, add the professional, medical and travel costs that sit outside the programme, and only then ask what the household can fund and by when. Because none of these payments is refundable and none returns capital, the figure is money the family will not see again, and the plan should be tested against the years after it rather than against the moment of payment.
Where a family member's inclusion is genuinely uncertain, ask counsel what each choice would mean before modelling either.