An eligible spouse and unmarried children under 21 may seek L-2 status. A qualifying L spouse is employment-authorized incident to status; L-2 children do not receive work authorization on that basis alone.
Check each person's status and intended activity individually
Record citizenship, relationship evidence, ages, and the proposed arrival timing for everyone. Verify the spouse's own documentation of work authorization rather than assuming an EAD is always required, or the only acceptable evidence. Keep any children's schooling plans separate from work and age-related questions, and do not let the principal applicant's target start date silently decide everyone else's arrangements.
Prepare a household chart listing identity, relationship evidence, ages, intended arrivals, schooling, and employment. Eligible relatives seek their own L-2 status; L-2 spouses are employment-authorized incident to status, but that does not settle which document a spouse should present to an employer. Confirm the principal's qualifying corporate relationship, continuous foreign year, and managerial or executive American role independently. A usual error is booking everyone around the executive's first day before checking document validity and each person's desired activity.
Hypothetical example: a Windsor logistics-software company's finance director will manage its American affiliate while his spouse plans contract work as a speech-language pathologist and their child will study. The family collects marriage and birth records, verifies each status date, and asks what documentation will show her incident-to-status authorization. They keep professional licensing separate from immigration permission and consider a later arrival for the child rather than treating one corporate launch calendar as binding on all three.