An eligible spouse in valid L-2 status is employment authorised incident to status and may work with appropriate employment-verification evidence. Ownership of the company by the principal does not itself grant the spouse work permission.
Keep family roles documented
Confirm the spouse’s actual status and documentation before U.S. work begins, and distinguish any business ownership from employment authorisation. Eligible unmarried children under 21 may hold L-2 but cannot work through that status, including informally in the family company.
The principal must continue qualifying L-1 employment; the household’s business involvement does not replace that requirement. Confirm the spouse position from the spouse own documents before any work begins. Hypothetical example: an owner assumes that because the family controls the U.S.
company, a spouse may start work there on arrival. Control of the employer is irrelevant to the spouse authorisation, which comes from the spouse own status. An eligible spouse in valid L-2 status is employment authorised incident to status and may work with appropriate employment-verification evidence; eligible unmarried children under 21 may hold L-2 and attend school but are not authorized to work.
The records to hold are the spouse admission evidence, the relationship documents and whatever the employer verification process requires. Keep any business ownership held by the spouse in a separate file, since it neither supplies nor supplements work permission.