Trust beneficiary status does not establish an immigration family relationship. Assess the actual spouse or unmarried child under 21 and the required dependent evidence separately.
Use family-status records for the family question
A qualifying L spouse may work incident to valid dependent status with appropriate spouse-specific I-94 evidence. L dependent children who are unmarried and under 21 do not receive that spouse authorization; the trust’s distribution terms do not change that rule.
An L-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status once admitted with the spouse annotation, and may drive for the company or work elsewhere. Distinguish principal work status from dependent status and identify role changes. A trust's beneficiary list is a financial and estate-planning document, built for a different purpose than establishing a family relationship for immigration purposes, and reading it for that purpose usually raises more questions than it answers. Rely instead on civil status records, marriage or birth documentation, and each person's own current circumstances to establish who actually qualifies as a spouse or dependent child. Ask an adviser familiar with both estate matters and immigration status to review the two sets of documents together, since a single professional rarely handles both areas with equal depth. Keep the two document sets, trust papers and status evidence, in separate files even while working through both questions at the same time.