Assess the actual ownership, nationality and control arrangement. A family relationship alone does not supply every enterprise or individual condition.
Separate corporate and status questions
A qualifying E spouse’s work benefit depends on valid status with appropriate evidence, not ownership arithmetic alone.
Create one chart identifying each principal investor, spouse, and unmarried child under 21, then attach citizenship, relationship, and intended-activity records to the correct person. Children hold no employment authorization through dependent status, and family members may receive appointments and decisions on different dates, so avoid plans that assume everyone travels together. An E-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status, which means the authorization exists once the spouse holds that classification — it does not reach backwards to cover services performed while an application is pending, and it is not attached to a visitor. Derivative status for an unmarried child ends at 21, the treaty-investor category offers no direct path to permanent residence that would carry the family through, and a student status has its own admission and funding requirements that take months to arrange. Discuss any independent employment plans and the children's future status questions explicitly, rather than assuming a shared business plan settles the whole household's arrangements.