Read the general life across the border overview
Orford households should keep immigration eligibility separate from payment, trip duration and professional qualifications held by another family member. The decision that matters most is timing: a household must choose whether every member moves on the principal’s date or whether the spouse and an older child follow once their own permissions exist. Fixing that order early avoids a dependant arriving with no right to earn and a child with no status at 21.
Check each proposed work activity
TD does not permit employment. Qualifying E and L spouses may work incident to appropriate status with required evidence; children do not receive the spouse permission. A brief task, shared credential or pending case is not automatic authorization.
Assess the child’s eligibility individually
Eligible children generally must be unmarried and under 21, with any applicable CSPA protection assessed on the actual case. Do not assume that paying Gold Card processing permanently freezes age. Immigrant-visa derivatives enter with or after the principal.
Budget without buying an eligibility exception
Gold Card uses a US$15,000 nonrefundable processing fee per person followed, after vetting and when instructed, by a US$1 million individual gift or US$2 million corporate-sponsor gift to the United States; each eligible included spouse or child adds US$1 million plus processing. It uses existing EB-1 or EB-2 classifications and is not EB-5 capital or equity. Extra payment does not waive age or relationship rules or guarantee a shared residence date. Re-verify the current official terms before any money moves.
Sequence the spouse’s venture and the older child’s status
Hypothetical example: a lodging manager for an Orford ski-area hotel group is transferred on L-1A to run a newly acquired inn in Maine. Her husband wants to open a small pastry business from their new home, and their son is 20. Because an L-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status, the husband may work once his admission record carries that annotation; the authorization is not tied to one employer, so a venture of his own is possible, but it starts only after his own L-2 admission, not from the day the transfer petition is approved. The son qualifies as an L-2 child today, yet at his 21st birthday that status ends and nothing in the parents’ case renews it. If he intends to study, the family should plan his change to a student classification well before the birthday rather than discover the gap at a border. The move date therefore has three parts, not one.
What goes wrong when one date is assumed for everyone
Households often book a single relocation because the employer paid for it. The failure that follows is predictable: the spouse begins taking orders before the L-2 admission is documented, which is unauthorized work; or the son enrols after turning 21 while still describing himself as a dependant. Neither error is cured by the principal’s approval, and both create a record the family must later explain. The remedy is a written sequence: principal’s admission first, spouse’s L-2 admission and any work start second, child’s own classification before the age limit, and a note of the seven-year L-1A ceiling that eventually ends every dependant status with it.
What else is on your mind?
Is a matching job title enough for TN?Can years of experience replace a degree for TN?Can my own U.S. company employ me under TN?Can my spouse work if I hold TN status?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.