Attribute work to the person who actually performs it. A household arrangement should not make one person’s operational tasks appear as another person’s management time.
Describe staffing and authorization accurately
If a qualifying L spouse will work, confirm valid dependent status and appropriate spouse-specific I-94 evidence before treating that work as available. An unmarried child under 21 may qualify as an L dependant but does not receive spouse work authorization or become authorized staffing through that status.
The spouse’s proposed employment still needs an accurate status assessment. A spouse holding properly documented L-2S status may work incident to status; children may not. A duty description prepared for the principal's own filing should reflect tasks the principal actually performs, and folding in work a spouse handles informally can misstate the principal's role along with the spouse's own status. Keep a simple record of who performs which task on a regular basis, since that record is useful if a reviewer later asks how responsibilities are actually divided. Avoid letting an unpaid or informal contribution by a spouse become part of the justification for the principal's classification, even if the help is genuine and appreciated. Ask whether any task the spouse currently handles should instead be assigned to a properly authorized employee, rather than continuing an arrangement that blurs who is actually doing the work. Revisit the duty description whenever staffing changes, since an outdated description can misrepresent the current operation regardless of intent.