What this guide covers
What a principal status entails for the family: the spouse’s right to stay, work authorization, schooling for children, and what happens when they come of age. It is the most underestimated subject of a relocation, and the one that most often decides a return.
What exists
The spouse’s stay
Most principal categories open a derivative status for the spouse and minor children. That status follows the principal’s: it ends with it.
Work authorization
Separate from the right to stay, and it does not follow automatically. Depending on the principal’s category, a spouse may apply for authorization, hold it by right, or have no access at all.
Schooling
Public school is open to any child residing in the district, regardless of immigration status. Central Florida also has a French school and bilingual programs.
Children coming of age
A child on derivative status loses it on reaching the age set by regulation. They must then move to a status of their own, student or otherwise, or leave.
What surprises people arriving from Europe or Quebec
A spouse who worked in Europe can find themselves with no right to work, sometimes for months. This is not an administrative formality: it is the most common reason for going home that we hear in the network, ahead of tax and ahead of the business climate.
Where it gets complicated
Processing times for a work authorization are not the same as the principal status’s, and they shift. USCIS publishes current times by form and by center: it is the only up-to-date source, and it changes month to month.
Official sources
- USCIS, current processing times
- USCIS, employment authorization
- Department of State, dependent visas
What French Executive Network can do
Introduce you to the French-speaking business lawyers, accountants and tax advisers in the network who handle this subject, and to the members who have already been through it.