The principal’s approval does not itself grant the spouse status or work permission. A qualifying L spouse may work incident to valid dependent status with the appropriate evidence. Evidence may include the spouse-specific I-94 classification where applicable.
Avoid counting future family help as present capacity
Document the spouse’s own eligibility and status before relying on their work. Unmarried children under 21 may qualify as L dependants but do not receive the spouse’s employment authorization. The staffing explanation must distinguish current workers from a possible later family hire.
Since USCIS treats L-2 spouses as employment-authorized incident to status, the spouse's admission record is the key document, and it should show the L-2S annotation that employers accept for Form I-9. A Canadian employment arrangement and US work permission need separate assessment. Assess where each activity occurs and the spouse’s actual US work authorization. The principal still needs a continuous qualifying foreign year during the prior three years, a parent, branch, subsidiary, or affiliate relationship, continued foreign operations and either U.S. operations or compliance with the initial new-office requirements, and a primarily managerial or executive U.S. role.