An L child does not receive the employment permission available to a qualifying L spouse.
Review the actual proposed assistance
Calling a task educational or unpaid does not automatically remove a work-authorization issue. Identify the activity before involving a dependent in the business assignment.
Define the child’s proposed “assistance” operationally: observe, study, handle test equipment, enter results, or replace an employee. An L-2 child receives no employment authorization, although a qualifying L-2 spouse may work incident to status. Calling productive activity unpaid, educational, or family help does not settle whether it is work. Keep the child away from business duties unless an independent lawful basis permits them. The principal’s petition must separately establish a related qualifying enterprise, a continuous foreign employment year within the earlier three years, and special or advanced company knowledge used in the American role. When the beneficiary will be stationed primarily at an unaffiliated customer site, the customer must not principally control and supervise the beneficiary, and the placement must relate to a product or service requiring petitioner-specific specialized knowledge rather than labour for hire, and total L-1B stay ordinarily ends after five years.
Hypothetical example: a North Hatley audio-equipment specialist transfers to validate company-specific amplifier diagnostics, and her seventeen-year-old daughter wants to run weekend stress tests. Watching a demonstration or completing a school exercise differs from logging production results staff would otherwise collect. The family should give the company a precise activity description before granting access. The daughter can decline operational testing while accompanying her parent; age and relationship provide L-2 eligibility, not permission to fill a testing need.