Ask how likely a move to another client site is during the engagement, and plan the household around that answer rather than the current site. Eligible spouses and unmarried children under 21 may seek L2, and their status follows the principal's rather than the project's location.
Avoid commitments tied to one site
Where relocations within the engagement are realistic, shorter-term housing and careful timing of school enrolment protect the family from an expensive second move. Discuss whether the spouse's own work plans can tolerate a change of city. A spouse in valid L-2S status is authorized to work incident to that status; children in L2 are not work authorized.
Confirm who tells the family when the project plan changes. Add one further planning question that mobile engagements raise: what happens if the assignment is extended rather than moved. Client projects frequently run longer than the statement of work anticipates, and a household that has optimised entirely for a short period — a sublet, a school place taken as a temporary arrangement, a spouse's career paused rather than moved — can find the second period considerably harder than the first.
Write down what a longer version would require, once, at the outset. Hypothetical example: a fleet telematics integration specialist's family plans for eleven months, spends an hour sketching a two-year version, and identifies three commitments worth structuring differently from the start at very little additional cost, which is an hour better spent than almost any other in the process.