Past involvement does not provide current US work permission.
Assess the spouse’s actual status
Qualifying L spouses may work incident to appropriate status with required evidence. A pending case or an informal team connection is not automatic employment authorization.
Record citizenship, relationship evidence, and ages, and verify the spouse's own documentation rather than assuming the L-1B label changes anything about dependent permissions. School enrolment, a spouse's employment, a lease and a vehicle all get arranged around a period that is shorter than it feels at the start. Plan dependents individually, beginning with passports, relationship records, current status, intended travel, school plans, and possible work. An L-2 spouse who is employment-authorized has the widest room, which is one practical reason a household may prefer an L petition over a category whose dependants cannot work. Check the child’s actual status and dates rather than using the parent’s approval as the complete family record. The practical advice is to treat the spouse's licensing as a parallel project with its own timeline, started as soon as the destination is known, rather than as something to look into after arrival. Eligible spouses and unmarried children under twenty-one may seek dependent classification, with eligibility depending on the relationship and, for children, on age and marital status, and that status does not authorise children to work.