A qualifying L-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status under current policy, shown by the notation on the arrival record. Children in dependent status may attend school but are not employment-authorized, and derivative status covers unmarried children under twenty-one.
Check the record at admission, then plan around the dates
The single most useful thing a family can do is verify what appears on each arrival record when they enter, rather than months later when a spouse has a job offer and the record turns out to say something unexpected. Beyond that, the planning is about dates. The managerial route has a maximum period, and a family's schooling and housing decisions are better made against that horizon than against a first approval.
Any child approaching twenty-one should be raised with counsel at the outset. Where a spouse has professional qualifications, it is still worth asking whether an independent route would give the household more security than a derivative status that ends when the principal's does. Hypothetical example: Mirela's transfer would move her to lead an industrial-laundry equipment affiliate, while her partner plans to keep a Canadian consulting practice active online.
A family review should identify each person's status, travel dates, school needs and income plan, including whether the spouse's intended work is authorized under the applicable status. Marriage and birth certificates, plus passports, settle relationship and identity questions more reliably than household bills. Sequence dependant filings after confirming the principal's petition dates, but do not postpone the family's work-authority analysis.
Trouble follows when a spouse keeps serving clients without checking where the work is performed and what authorization is required.