The actual organizational relationships and requirements must be established. A family connection does not automatically make it a qualifying group entity.
Map the real ownership
Keep separate businesses distinct unless the relevant relationship is supported. The spouse’s US work permission also needs its own status and evidence assessment.
The legal position is settled, but the practical one involves a document a US employer will want in its hiring file, so the spouse should be prepared to explain the basis of employment authorization and to produce the admission record showing L-2 status. Identify the spouse’s passport, marriage record, each child’s birth record, marital status, and age, then confirm that the principal’s L-1 petition and travel plan can support the related applications. Some American employers and payroll systems are unfamiliar with employment authorization that arises incident to status, so the spouse should expect to explain the basis and may still want the document that makes verification easy. Spousal employment authorization is documented, and that documentation has its own issuance timeline; a spouse counting on income from a fixed date should know when the underlying evidence can realistically exist.