TD permits study and does not permit work. When the principal’s authorized stay is approaching its end, review the dependents’ own admission records and dates rather than assuming their documents automatically extend.
Build a realistic single-income transition plan
Coordinate any dependent-status steps with the principal’s extension strategy and the school calendar. Tell the school about practical document needs without treating enrollment as an extension of immigration status. Have counsel review approaching status deadlines; continued attendance does not itself supply lawful stay or employment authorization.
There is a related planning point about children that households often meet late. Dependent status extends to unmarried children under twenty-one and permits study, but it does not authorize employment for them either, so an older teenager expecting summer work needs a separate answer. Set out each dependent's admission record and its expiry alongside the principal's, since those dates do not always align and are not extended automatically by a school enrolment or by the principal's own extension.
Ask counsel to review the whole household's dates together well before the earliest of them arrives, rather than treating dependants as paperwork that follows the principal. Keep each dependent's records in that person's own folder, since the documents are requested individually and a combined household file is slower to work from at exactly the wrong moment.