A different qualifying-employment date may delay or prevent the proposed transfer, so dependent plans remain conditional on eligibility. Eligible spouses and unmarried children under 21 may seek L-2; a spouse in valid L-2S status is employment authorized incident to status. Review the household timetable after counsel assesses the actual history.
Avoid committing the household to the earlier date
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. Hold reversible decisions until the counting question is answered. Each family member's own citizenship and status should be confirmed separately, since those are individual facts and do not follow from the principal's.
Give the household the range of outcomes rather than a single expectation, since the range here is unusually wide: the transfer proceeds now, it proceeds after a stated date once the qualifying period is complete, or the counting question makes this route unsuitable. Each is a different plan with different decisions attached. Dependent status extends to a spouse and unmarried children under twenty-one, and a spouse in valid L-2S status is generally employment authorized incident to that status while children are not, so a household relying on a second income depends on the first or second outcome rather than the third.