That is a case strategy question for counsel rather than a household one, but the answer shapes family timing. Eligible spouses and unmarried children under 21 may seek L-2; a spouse in valid L-2S status is employment authorized incident to status, and children are not work authorized by L-2.
Keep family commitments reversible
Where the filing date may move on legal advice, avoid decisions the household cannot unwind: notice on housing, a resignation by a spouse, or a school place that must be accepted by a fixed date. Ask counsel for a realistic earliest and latest range rather than one date. If a spouse intends to work, treat the timing of their authorization as its own question, since it follows the principal's steps.
Add one further household discipline to that reversibility rule: decide in advance what each family member does if the range's later end is the one that materialises. A spouse's employer, a school, and a landlord will each want an answer sooner than the case can give one, and a household that has agreed its own fallback positions in advance answers those questions calmly rather than under pressure. Write six lines: for each commitment, what the household does if the date moves by three months, and by six.
Then confirm each passport's expiry against the later end of the range rather than the earlier one. Hypothetical example: a telecom equipment maker's transferee and their family agree that a school application will be made with a refundable deposit, that notice on housing will not be given until a specific stage completes, and that the spouse's resignation waits behind that same stage — three decisions taken in one conversation rather than three arguments spread across a year.