Read the general life across the border overview
Hypothetical example: a Grand Bay-Westfield family moving on an L-1B assignment includes a twenty-year-old daughter who will turn 21 fourteen months after arrival. L-2 derivative status is available to unmarried children under 21, so her status ends at that birthday and does not extend with the parent's. Her mother, as an L-2 spouse, is employment-authorized incident to status. The daughter is not, and the change she needs must be prepared well before she ages out.
The spouse and the child are in different positions
Hypothetical example: a Grand Bay-Westfield family reads that L-2 dependants may work and assumes that covers everyone. It does not. Employment authorization incident to status belongs to the L-2 spouse. An L-2 child may live in the United States and attend school, but may not be employed, and there is no application that adds employment to a derivative child's status. That distinction shapes the family's first year: the mother can take a job subject to any occupational licensing her field requires, and the daughter's options are study or unpaid activity that is genuinely not employment. Volunteering for an organization that would otherwise pay someone for the same work is the line that catches people, and it should be checked rather than assumed.
Count the birthday, then work backwards
Hypothetical example: the daughter turns 21 in the fourteenth month of a five-year assignment. Her L-2 status is tied to being an unmarried child under 21, so it ends then regardless of how long her father's status runs. The usual answer is a change to student status if she will be studying, and that has its own timetable: choose a school authorized to enrol foreign students, be accepted, obtain the school's issued record, pay the required fee and file the change of status before her current status expires. Acceptance and school paperwork are the slow parts and they sit outside the family's control. Starting six months before the birthday is comfortable; starting six weeks before is not, and falling out of status while an application is prepared creates problems that are far harder to fix than to avoid.
Give every household member a line of their own
Hypothetical example: the same family also has a fifteen-year-old son and a grandmother who intends long visits. Writing the household out one line per person, with citizenship, current status, date of birth and intended activity, is the exercise that surfaces problems while they are still cheap. The son has years before the age limit but will face the same question if the assignment is extended. The grandmother is a visitor and her stays are governed by admission periods and by what she may do while present, which does not include work. And because L-1B status is capped at five years, the family should know from the outset that the assignment has an end date, and should decide early whether a permanent-residence route is being pursued rather than leaving it until the cap is close.
What else is on your mind?
Is a matching job title enough for TN?Can years of experience replace a degree for TN?Can my own U.S. company employ me under TN?Can my spouse work if I hold TN status?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.