A qualifying L-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status under current policy, evidenced by the notation on the arrival record. Accompanying children in the same dependent status may attend school but are not employment-authorized.
Confirm the notation rather than assuming the outcome
The practical step is to check what appears on each family member's admission record, because that notation is what an American employer will look for when a spouse applies for work. Do this at the time of admission rather than months later, when correcting an error means dealing with the process for fixing an arrival record. For children, the distinction that matters is between studying, which dependants in this status may do, and working, which they may not. A child approaching an age limit deserves a separate conversation with counsel, because the consequences arrive on a birthday rather than at a convenient point in the family's plans. If the spouse has professional qualifications of their own, it is still worth asking whether an independent route would give the household more flexibility than dependent status does.
Hypothetical example: Tariq, a solar-farm operations leader, has a child close to twenty-one when the company proposes a delayed move. His family calendar should separate the principal’s petition and admission, the spouse’s L-2S evidence and the child’s age-out date. A qualifying L-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status, while an L-2 child may study but cannot work and ceases to qualify as a child at twenty-one. Civil records and I-94 documents should be gathered before dates are promised. The family timetable cannot extend Tariq’s own eligibility: his case still requires the qualifying foreign year and related entities, and L-1A time is capped at seven years.