The spouse needs the actual status or authorization permitting the proposed work. Qualifying L spouses may be employment-authorized incident to status with the required evidence; the principal’s pending petition is not enough. A related subject area does not cause the principal’s authorization to cover another person.
Assess the spouse’s activity separately
Identify the employer, duties, compensation and location. Research described as unpaid may still need work-authorization analysis. Keep the spouse’s independent qualifications and any other route distinct from the principal’s specialized-knowledge evidence.
Begin with identity documents, relationship records, planned employment or study, and travel timing for every relative. The first review should produce a separate activity review instead of an assumption that household work is covered.; each conclusion should point to the record that settles it. Next, confirm the dependent's classification before accepting paid engagements. This order keeps a later explanation from being asked to repair a missing fact. What commonly goes wrong is unpaid advisory activity may still need authorization analysis when it benefits a business. Preserve dated source material and identify the unresolved issue instead of using a confident generalization. Hypothetical example: A botanical-garden educator accompanies a transferee and is offered paid U.S. exhibit curation. The reviewer treats that offer as the educator's own immigration issue. The decision is whether the actual record supports the proposed activity now, requires a different sequence, or calls for a separate route. L-1B likewise requires related qualifying organizations and twelve uninterrupted months of full-time foreign service in the preceding three years. Total time in this classification is generally capped at five years.