The spouse’s individual immigration status and documentation govern the relevant permission. A company’s relocation approval is not a substitute.
Review the family’s separate activities
Qualifying L spouses are employment authorized incident to status, while L dependent children do not receive work permission solely on that basis. Include proposed work and study in the assessment and confirm each person’s documentation and authorized stay. Households come unstuck here because the company answers a question nobody asked.
A mobility policy confirms that the family is covered for the assignment, meaning covered for shipping, schooling allowances and tax support, and the family reads that as permission to work. The two have no relationship. What settles a spouse's position is that person's own status and the document evidencing it, which is why the family's admission records matter as much as the principal's.
Retrieve and keep each person's own I-94 record after every entry, check the class of admission and the period recorded on it, and store them where the household can find them a year later. Hypothetical example: a spouse who was a clinical dietitian in Canada plans to seek a comparable role, and discovers the useful sequence is to confirm status and documentation first, then approach employers, rather than to accept an offer and work backwards. Children's plans should be reviewed separately, including any age-related date that will fall during the assignment.