What will happen with my EAD and SSN if I'll lose L2 ?

Hi!
I am and kids is on L2 which allowed to have EAD , SSN, driver license...What if my husband will be laid off or company will go under water or he'll leave this company to another on H1B. I will lose my L2. What is the grace period (or whatchamacallit...time allows me to work in US after losing L2) How about my SSN? Do I have to reenter US to change L2 status to H4.


Any suggestions will be really appreciated.

If your status is derivative of your spouses, then once his status is either expired or terminated then so is yours.

Your SSN is yours for life, you keep that. However, it likely says on the card "valid only with employment authorization" or something to that effect.

Your SSN will be in the SSA database, so they made a record of when your L-2 status expires and it will expire in relation to work authorization when that status expires. However, you keep the SSN for life, so if you have to fill in a tax return you still use the same SSN. If you need it re-authorized you have to get work authorization and go to the SSA office with proof of your status. And obviously your EAD has an expiry date on it as well.

You don't have to re-enter to change status. You can if you want file I-539 to change status from L-2 to H-4, but it costs $320 so it's usually cheaper and definitely faster to leave and re-enter.

There is no work authorization possible for H-4, or most of the other similar derivative categories such as TD. Your children can't get work authorization as L-2, only the spouse can.

As soon as your husband changes status, your L-2 would be invalid.

Thank you Reba and Steven!
The reason why I'm asking about SSN is that I'm a fine artist and my art business (contracts with US galleries, sales aggrements...anything about sales) as a current US and local resident I required to provide SSN for letting know about my income as an self employed and pay taxes. Sales of art takes time so what is gonna happen if my EAD will be terminated(husband loses his L1A) but I'll still be selling my paintings through galleries and SSN will show my business activity after, because I simply can't come to gallery one day and say - Game over give my paintings back.. - according agreements and longevity of my contracts with them. Or I still can sell my stuff here in US as a Canadian. I probably have to ask Canadian artists about how they selling in US. I don't mind to pay taxes to Canada but I don't even have a residency in Canada anymore.

If you have no work authorization you can't work, it's as simple as that. Self-employed or anything else. You can't even do volunteer work. One of my relatives was on L-2 for awhile and the local school wanted volunteers for after school activities, USCIS told her she needed to file an I-765 for that, even though it wasn't a paid position.

Your situation is a bit unusual in that you've done the work and are selling off the completed products. Given that selling the product is part of an on-going business you probably can't do it anymore, you'd have to check with USCIS. If it was your personal possession that you're selling off incidentally but not as part of a business, you could do that.

You can receive royalties on work you've completed, e.g. if you were a writer, the book has already been published and it's income derived from that, because there's no actual work taking place. Or say you were an actor and you're getting residuals.

Thank you Steven!
This is interesting about writer or actors... but in fact artist's work is done when he finished artwork so it means he is not working on it anymore since its exhibited in gallery. Art dealer is selling his artworks and taking commissions from it. I must not to sign a new contracts since Ive lost my EAD, but what to do with those already signed.
I hadn't lost my L2 yet but kind of puzzled how to respond to the gallery offers.
I'll keep posted