Eligible spouses and unmarried children under 21 may seek L-2 status. L spouses are employment authorized incident to qualifying status; dependent children cannot work in L-2 status, although they may attend school.
Build a separate family file
Dependents are not included as beneficiaries on the principal L-1 petition. Prepare relationship and identity documents and check each person’s visa or status procedure. After admission, verify each I-94, including the spouse’s L-2S classification where applicable.
The principal’s approval is not itself the spouse’s employment document. Align school, work and travel plans with the family’s actual status dates. Responsibility for dependents sits outside the petition, which is exactly why it is dropped.
Hypothetical example: A commercial real-estate advisory business handles the principal’s L-1A through its corporate counsel and assumes the same instruction covers the spouse. It does not: dependents are not beneficiaries of the principal petition, and someone has to be told to prepare the relationship evidence and to follow each person’s own visa or status procedure. Decide early who instructs counsel on the family file and who pays for it, because a company mandate limited to the transferee leaves the household unrepresented.
After arrival, verification falls to the household — reading each I-94, confirming the spouse’s classification before any employer completes verification paperwork, and raising a discrepancy while it is still fixable.