Qualifying L spouses may be employment-authorized incident to status with appropriate documentation; an EAD is not universally required.
Distinguish derivative permission from principal eligibility
A spouse seeking an independent principal classification would need its own assessment. Children do not gain work permission solely as L dependents.
Review each person’s actual status and intended activity; receiving shares or joining a family investment does not itself authorize employment. Gather passports, marriage records and travel dates, then verify the documents evidencing actual L-2 status before employment begins. A pending case confers nothing, so a spouse who is present as a visitor while USCIS holds the petition remains a visitor, and a visitor’s permitted activities are narrow. An unmarried child under 21 may remain eligible as an L dependant but does not receive that spouse work authorization; assess any approaching age or status limit separately. Derivative status for a child depends on being unmarried and under 21, and both facts are tested continuously rather than only at admission, so a seventeen-year-old at the start of a seven-year maximum stay will not be a derivative at the end of it.