Review the spouse’s actual services and valid status before relying on that income. A qualifying L spouse may work incident to dependent status with appropriate spouse-specific I-94 evidence.
Assess the spouse’s activity on its own facts
The principal’s earlier consulting history does not authorize the spouse’s work. Any accompanying L child must be unmarried and under 21 and does not receive the spouse’s employment authorization or inherit permission through a family business.
An L-2 spouse is employment-authorized by virtue of status; children may study, cannot work, and cease to qualify at 21. A consulting practice the spouse ran before the move does not carry forward automatically, and its structure should be reassessed rather than assumed to continue unchanged once the household relocates. Confirm whether the planned activity counts as employment requiring separate authorization or falls outside that category entirely, since the answer can depend on how clients are billed and where the work is performed. Existing client contracts, business registration and invoicing arrangements may need updating to reflect the spouse's actual status rather than the prior arrangement, and a lapse in that paperwork can affect everyone involved. Ask an adviser to review the practice's structure before assuming any part of it can continue unchanged, rather than treating continuity as the default outcome. Keep records of when the practice was reviewed and what changed, since a household move is a reasonable point to revisit terms that were set under different circumstances.