Assess the actual contractual authority separately from immigration status and work permission.
Keep family eligibility distinct
Eligible derivatives do not automatically acquire every principal’s contractual right. Review the spouse’s intended activity and the family’s actual residence or authorization rather than inferring authority from inclusion in the case. A spouse and unmarried children under 21 may qualify as derivatives.
Because the process runs for years, a child's eligibility can be lost simply through the passage of time, and the Child Status Protection Act allows certain periods to be subtracted from a child's age depending on processing and visa availability. Record every family member's age and objectives early, since a payment or a filed petition does not, by itself, freeze a child's age; applicable Child Status Protection Act rules require individual, case-specific calculation. Whether a child keeps derivative eligibility after turning twenty-one is fact-specific and depends on the applicable age-protection analysis rather than on a general rule, so raise it at the first consultation if any child is in their late teens. Give counsel a single sheet with the child's date of birth, marital status, every prior immigrant petition filed for the family, and each United States status the child has held, together with both parents' countries of birth.