As a sign the case is not yet ready. Until the description is settled, no filing date is real, and dependants' plans follow the principal's. 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.
Ask for the resolution date, then plan
The applicant is rarely the person who can settle a dispute between two internal functions, so ask for a date by which the reconciled description will exist and a named owner for it. Until then, keep the household's decisions reversible and avoid notice periods tied to an assumed start. If the reconciliation reduces the role, the family should hear about it from the applicant rather than from a changed offer.
Give the household one further piece of information alongside the resolution date: what happens to the plan under each outcome. If the reconciled account supports the claim, the timeline resumes; if it does not, the options are restructuring the role, a different category, or no move. Families cope with delay considerably better than with silence, and the applicant is usually the only person who can pass that information on.
Note as well that a spouse's ability to work in the L context is derivative of the principal's status, so the household's second income depends on the same unresolved question.