Plan each person's activity and status separately. The principal investor's authorization and a qualifying E-2 spouse's employment authorization are different bases; a family relationship alone does not establish that either person has been admitted in the required status.
Assign business responsibilities after checking each person's position
Write down who intends to manage, serve customers or perform administrative work and when. Compare that plan with the documents each person will actually hold. If children are included, do not treat them as authorized workers under the spouse rule. The household can use this division of responsibilities for planning, while leaving unresolved immigration or hiring questions clearly marked until they have been assessed. Dependent eligibility concerns an eligible spouse and unmarried children under 21; assess the individual status and authorized period.
The principal must possess treaty nationality, place lawful funds irrevocably at risk in a substantial investment, and develop and direct a qualifying treaty-owned enterprise by holding half of it or exercising operational control. Families who assume that a decade of successful trading eventually converts into residence are usually the ones who discover otherwise at an inconvenient moment, often when a child approaches twenty-one and their derivative status ends.