The processing fee is paid per person before vetting and is not refundable, so it is at risk from the first day. The gift arises after vetting. Nothing about the sequence should be started until the official terms have been re-verified, and no timetable should be promised to an employer, a school or a buyer of a Quebec business.
Spend nothing on the strength of an expected schedule
Two timing errors do the most damage. The first is paying early on the assumption that the money is held pending an outcome; it is not, and a household should decide whether it can absorb that loss before paying anything. The second is arranging life around a predicted approval date: selling equipment, giving notice, enrolling a child, or committing to a closing date on a business sale.
Because the programme is recent, its processing patterns are not well established, and a schedule built on secondhand accounts of how long it took someone else is not a schedule. The sensible order is to confirm the underlying classification first, verify the current official terms and amounts second, satisfy the household that the nonrefundable portion is acceptable third, and only then begin. Where a broker is applying pressure to move quickly, that pressure is itself a reason to slow down and check the official source again.