A method for fabricating wafer-level packages including lateral interconnects. The method includes precutting a cover wafer at the locations where the cover wafer will be completely cut through to separate the wafer-level packages. The cover wafer is bonded to the substrate wafer using bonding rings so as to seal the integrated circuit within a cavity between the cover wafer and the substrate wafer, where the precuts face the substrate wafer. The cover wafer is then cut at the precut locations to remove the unwanted portions of the cover wafer between the packages and expose contacts or probe pads for the lateral interconnects. The substrate wafer is then cut between the wafer-level packages to separate the packages.