An invitation is not employment authorization. Assess the spouse’s actual activity and status.
Use the correct permission evidence
Qualifying L spouses may work incident to appropriate status with required evidence. Neither a pending case nor an honorary title resolves whether the proposed activity is permitted.
A family that assumes a standard multi-year assignment can make commitments that a shortened period will not support: a school year that runs past the authorized stay, a lease, a spouse's employment offer. A spouse may take employment anywhere, including work unrelated to the family business, which often stabilises a household's income during a first year when the new operation is consuming cash rather than producing it. Record who would travel, each person's nationality and current status, and whether a spouse expects to work for the same company or elsewhere, since a spouse working in a closely held family business raises questions worth putting to counsel early. Where the principal transfers within a company, the spouse's ability to work follows automatically from status rather than from a separate application, which matters a great deal to a family moving on the strength of one salary. Only an eligible spouse and unmarried children under 21 may seek L-2 status as dependents of the principal applicant; other relatives, including business partners or extended family, need their own independent basis.