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SAINT-SULPICE · L-1A FIELD GUIDE

Does the applicant’s management grade determine dependent work rights?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

No. Family permissions depend on the applicable individual immigration status and documentation, not the company’s internal grading system.

Keep internal benefits separate from immigration rights

Qualifying L spouses are employment authorized incident to status with appropriate documentation. Children receive no work permission solely through L dependent status. An employer benefit package does not establish those permissions.

The spouse needs the appropriate actual status and work-authorization evidence. An internal grading or leveling system exists for compensation and career-path purposes inside the company, and nothing about where a person sits on that scale changes what an admission record and classification actually establish. Ask the employer to keep pay-grade or benefits documentation separate from the documents used to verify a family member's own eligibility, since mixing the two sometimes produces the wrong paperwork for either purpose. Confirm the spouse's own classification and admission evidence independently, rather than treating a favorable internal grade as if it were an immigration determination. Whether the intended occupation needs its own professional license or credential is a separate question entirely, unrelated to the company's grading structure, and deserves its own answer. Keep a plain, current record of what evidence supports the spouse's eligibility, organized apart from any internal personnel file, so it is ready whenever verification is needed. Treat a bonus, a stipend or any other compensation element the same way: useful for payroll, irrelevant to an eligibility determination made on entirely separate grounds.