Hi,
We are currently residing in canada as permanent residents for the past 1-1/2 yr. Recently my wife's company was acquired by a US firm who as a result of their decision to relocate operations to it's US headquarters, extended an offer to the whole operations department to move & relocate to DC and prepared a robust package for the purpose of the same - outlining all costs in this respect to be bourne by them. We have decided to accept the offer but are unclear about a lot of things as described below.

As per the contract provided by her company (which she has to sign by 09/08/2006), she shall be provided with an L1 visa & I shall be on an L2 spouse visa. To complex things further we are in the process of a new addition to our family & the due date is mid-november. Hence the company has agreed to be flexible & has allowed her to join by may 2007 instead of December 2006 as per the contract.

1. As per our research, an L2 status spouse is allowed to work in US, but has to apply for a EAD in order to lawfully work & it takes aprox. 2-3 months for it to come through. We would like to understand the whole procedure (step by step) so that we can plan our move accordingly. Currently I am planning on entering US in early next year on my L visa & apply for EAD & thereafter return to canada and continue to work with my present employer & thereby finally move after 2-3 months (which should be about the time when my EAD arrives). Is this workable? Can I land alone without my wife or principal visa holder or we need to do so together?
I have been informed by some sources that I need to be present for 2-3 weeks after landing coz' a background check is conducted based on my I-94 record & if it shows that I have exited, it shall suspend my application & I shall lose the time rather then making use of it (as planned). Similarly I also need to schedule for a biometric scanning appointment in the interim period after receiving the acknowledgement of the application for which I should be present physically.
Can we make our landing in any city which is closer to our current residing city in canada on west coast & follow the procedures from there or can the biometric scanning be scheduled after we move in finally and the rest of the process can carry on.
In case neither is allowed & a physical presence is required by all means for the procedure to follow on, can I work with an employer after receiving the acknowledgement of my ead in the interim period till the ead card finally arrives?

2. can we enter & exit usa after being on our respective L visa status or we need to apply for advanced parole in order to do so? This is crucial for us to know prior to accepting the contract as we would want to retain our residency in canada as a backup till our papers for permanent residency/green card are filed by the employer.

3. We currently holding indian passports and have 10yr multiple tourist visas for USA stamped on our passports. Will the visas become invalid once the L visas are stamped?

4. As per the contract my wife's firm shall apply for our green cards after her one year of service in the firm in US (subject to her performance record) at their expense. How much time does it take once the application is filed to finally get the green card & what is the working process of the same? Are we allowed to travel i.e. enter/exit borders once the application for AOS is filed? Can we get our process expediated privately by hiring a lawyer. What are our rights & limitations till we receive our green cards?

5. We are aware that the L visa validity is 5 years & EAD has to be renewed after every 2 years (6months prior to its expiry)? What happens to our status if the green card process takes longer than anticipated & goes beyond the validity?

I would highly appreciate if someone can give us more insight on the above mentioned concerns asap.
Sorry for being so elaborative in description, but to give a better understanding of our peculiar situation couldn't come up with anything better and penned down everything that came to mind.

Thanks
:confused: