Yes. An L-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status, so the right to work comes with the status itself rather than from a separate permission. Children hold derivative status and may attend school, but they cannot work, and they cease to qualify as derivatives at twenty-one.
The spouse's position differs sharply from the TN equivalent
This is one of the practical differences that decides which route a household prefers. Under the L classification a spouse's employment authorization is incident to status, which means the spouse may accept employment without waiting for a separate permission to be granted, and current USCIS policy is set out in the Policy Manual. Households should still confirm what documentary evidence an American employer will want to see before a start date is agreed, since payroll departments have their own habits.
Children are in a different position entirely. They may attend school at any level, but they may not work, and their derivative status ends when they turn twenty-one regardless of how much of the principal's period remains. A nineteen-year-old joining a family on a seven-year L-1A horizon needs a plan of their own well before that birthday arrives, usually a student route with its own requirements.
Households often treat a school place as an immigration question, when it is a district enrolment matter with its own paperwork.
- USCIS: L-1A Intracompany Transferee Executive or Manager
- USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 2 Part L, Intracompany Transferees
- eCFR: 8 CFR 214.2(l), Intracompany transferees
- Department of State: 9 FAM 402.12, Intracompany transferees
- USCIS: employment authorization for certain spouses, Policy Manual Volume 10 Part B Chapter 2