At the outset, because household needs can change what the company must prepare and when. A spouse and unmarried children under 21 may seek L-2 status. A spouse in valid L-2S status is employment authorized incident to that status, so an EAD is not universally required; appropriate employment-eligibility evidence is still needed, while children are not work authorized.
Ask what the household actually depends on
If the household relies on a partner's income, that fact belongs in the planning discussion before anyone resigns a position or signs a lease. Record each family member's citizenship and current status, since these can create separate steps that do not follow automatically from the employee's case. Schooling arrangements, and a later arrival for part of the family, are also worth deciding early rather than treating as details.
Ask one further question at that first meeting: what the household would do if the assessment concluded the transfer should wait. That is a real possible outcome here, since the qualifying year and the knowledge claim can each produce a date rather than a decision, and a family that has considered it in advance responds very differently from one hearing it for the first time. Dependent status extends to a spouse and unmarried children under twenty-one, and children are not work authorized by it, so a household expecting a second income should confirm the spouse's position specifically rather than by analogy.