Ownership alone is not work authorization. A qualifying E spouse may work incident to valid status with appropriate evidence; confirm the person’s actual classification and authorized dates.
Keep shareholder rights and immigration permission separate
Dependent eligibility can cover an eligible spouse and unmarried children under 21, but children do not receive the spouse’s work permission. The principal’s purchase agreement does not grant dependent status. Assess proposed work, including management of the shared business, from the spouse’s real immigration record.
What genuinely differs is durability: an employee's status depends on continuing employment with an enterprise that continues to qualify, so a change of ownership at the employer can affect the whole household. Because the category asks whether treaty-country nationals own at least half the enterprise, and whether the investor genuinely develops and directs it, shares or voting rights placed in a relative's name can move the answer to a question nobody meant to open. The planning failure is building the operation around unpaid family labour that has not yet been authorized: a dispatch function staffed by one person whose own process is still outstanding is a single point of failure for the whole enterprise.