A system and method are provided for calibrating temporal skew in a multichannel optical transport network (OTN) transmission device. The method accepts a pair of 2n-phase shift keying (2n-PSK) modulated signals, as well as a pair of 2p-PSK modulated signals. The 2n-PSK and 2p-PSK signals are converted to 2n-PSK and 2p-PSK optical signals, respectively. The 2n-PSK and 2p-PSK optical signals are orthogonally polarized and transmitted. A timing voltage is generated that is responsive to the intensity of the orthogonally polarized signals. The timing voltage is correlated to a reference frame calibration pattern associated with a preamble/header portion of an OTN frame. Then, the timing voltages associated with the Ix, Qx, Iy, and Qy signal paths are compared, and the misalignment between the timing voltages and the reference frame calibration pattern is minimized in response to adjusting time delay modules in the Ix, Qx, Iy, and Qy signal paths.