Do not assume that. Review each person’s actual admission and status documents.
Check the individual dates
L dependents may study while maintaining status, but study does not extend their stay. Children do not receive work permission solely through dependent status.
Hypothetical example: a laboratory-instrument business sending a technical specialist first while the spouse completes a professional licensing examination. Plan each person’s status and activity on separate tracks. A qualifying L-2 spouse may work when valid status and the required evidence establish permission; a child can attend school but cannot take employment solely because the principal has L-1B classification. Keep relationship documents and admission records ready, especially where arrivals will be staggered. A first review should also ask whether the spouse’s licensing timetable is independent of immigration timing. The family can choose a phased move, but it should not assume that a future job or school place changes the underlying status rules.
L-1B requires qualifying organizations, a specialized-knowledge role, and one uninterrupted qualifying year with the related organization outside the United States during the three-year lookback. L-1B time generally ends at five years, while L-1A has a seven-year maximum. A title or a difficult-to-replace employee does not itself establish specialized knowledge.
Use records created closest to the event: signed agreements, payroll or bank evidence, corporate records, licences, civil documents, and dated correspondence. A careful review identifies what each record proves and what it does not prove. Do not solve a factual gap by copying a favourable label from another route. Make the next decision only after the missing fact is either documented, changed, or plainly described as unresolved.