Assess the actual activity and the spouse’s work permission rather than assume accompaniment permits project work.
Use the family member’s own status evidence
Qualifying L spouses may work incident to appropriate status with required evidence. Children do not receive those spouse rights, and the principal’s assignment alone does not authorize a family member to provide services.
Define whether the spouse would merely organize personal records or would create, translate, analyze, or deliver project material for the company. The latter may be work even if informal or unpaid. A qualifying L-2 spouse is generally authorized to work incident to status, subject to having appropriate status evidence for onboarding; an L-2 child is not. Keep the spouse’s admission and employment-verification documents apart from the principal’s petition. That petition must independently show a qualifying organizational relationship and the business-activity evidence applicable to the petition type, one continuous foreign employment year within the earlier three years, and special or advanced company knowledge for the U.S. assignment. Previous L time may count toward L-1B’s five-year limit. Assuming family accompaniment automatically authorizes project assistance is the mistake to avoid.
Hypothetical example: A machinery-diagnostics technician from Saint-Charles-de-Bourget is transferred to explain a proprietary maintenance history, while his spouse is asked to translate migration notes. They identify translation as company work and do not begin it merely because the spouse accompanies him. After entry, the spouse confirms eligible L-2 spouse documentation before accepting the assignment. Their teenager may study in L-2 status but cannot take project work. This sequence protects the principal’s specialized-knowledge record and the spouse’s separate employment compliance.