Children do not receive employment permission solely through L dependent status. Qualifying L spouses have a distinct status-based benefit with appropriate evidence.
Assess actual tasks and status
An internal training or family-help label does not settle permission. Review the individual activity before participation. The dependent category is for a qualifying spouse or unmarried child under 21; each person needs valid status.
Where the family has already begun planning around an assumed start, an unresolved question about the qualifying period can leave school enrolments or a resignation stranded. Because dependent permissions derive from the principal's, the whole family reaches the same terminal date together, which is worth naming out loud rather than discovering when an extension is refused. Keep the spouse's work plan separate from the principal's L-1B proof: one continuous foreign year in the preceding three, an active qualifying related organization, and specialized company knowledge. Children admitted as L-2 dependants may enrol in school and are listed among the classes permitted to study, but they hold no work authorisation, which matters where a teenager expects summer employment.