Family permission follows each person’s actual status, not the prestige of the principal’s new title. A qualifying L spouse may work incident to valid dependent status with appropriate evidence, including the applicable spouse-specific I-94.
Review each family member’s documents
A principal approval alone does not place the spouse or children in status. Qualifying unmarried children under 21 may accompany in L dependent status but do not receive the spouse’s employment authorization.
Prior L periods should also be counted toward the principal’s seven-year L-1A ceiling. L-2 spouses are employment-authorized incident to status, so the spouse is not tied to the transferring company and does not need a separate employer to sponsor them.
Do not assume that working for the foreign affiliate supplies US permission when services are actually performed in the United States. A shift in the principal's own duties does not, by itself, change what a spouse or child is authorized to do, since each family member's permission rests on their own record rather than on the principal's title. Check whether the change requires a new petition for the principal, and if so, confirm whether that filing also calls for updated paperwork for any dependent. Avoid assuming that a promotion or role change quietly extends or improves a dependent's own status without a corresponding filing. Review each family member's documents on their own timeline whenever the principal's role changes, rather than treating the change as a household-wide event.