A relocation plan should reflect the employee’s actual readiness and immigration route. Eligible spouses and unmarried children under 21 may seek L-2 status, but the employee’s training completion does not itself grant anyone permission to enter or work.
Plan around authorised status
Keep school and housing dates flexible while eligibility and filing are assessed. An eligible spouse in valid L-2 status is employment authorised incident to status, with appropriate evidence such as an unexpired L-2S I-94; dependent children cannot work on L-2 status. Collect relationship documents alongside the principal’s preparation rather than after travel is booked.
Consider what a training-driven schedule does to dependants. Assignments justified by specialised knowledge often start on a technical timetable — a system cutover, a product launch, a validation window — which is not a timetable anyone can adjust for a school term or a medical appointment. Identify early which family dates are genuinely fixed.
Where a spouse intends to work, remember that the authorization flows from holding valid dependent status rather than from the principal’s role, and that it can be affected if the principal’s status changes. Gather the relationship records in parallel with the technical file, not afterwards; retrieving a foreign birth certificate or arranging a certified translation can take longer than assembling the training chronology it was supposed to accompany.