Review each person’s current status, travel documents and the effect of the pending matter before deciding. The existence of a response deadline does not establish family travel permission.
Do not infer a spouse’s status from the principal’s correspondence
Qualifying L spouses may work incident to valid dependent status with appropriate evidence, including the spouse-specific I-94. Children do not receive that spouse benefit, and the principal’s filing alone does not grant dependent status. Dependent-child eligibility ordinarily concerns an unmarried child under 21.
An L-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status, which means the authorization flows from the status itself rather than from a separate application. A response deadline and a status expiration date are two different dates set by two different processes, and meeting one has no bearing on the other. Check each family member's own admission record for its actual remaining validity before planning any departure or return, since the notice's timeline and each person's authorized period rarely line up by coincidence. Ask whether a passport or other travel document held by a dependent needs its own renewal before departure, a separate question from the status question entirely. Treat the pending matter and any travel plans as separate questions handled on separate tracks, each with its own deadline.