Children do not receive employment permission solely through E dependent status.
Separate spouse and child rules
Qualifying E spouses may be employment-authorized incident to status with appropriate documentation. Children may study while maintaining applicable status, but study does not confer work permission.
Hypothetical example: a small-batch mushroom-substrate business in which the investor will manage operations, the spouse will work elsewhere, and a teenager will occasionally pack orders. List the actual duties for each person instead of using family labels. A qualifying E spouse may work when valid classification and appropriate evidence establish permission, but a child does not acquire work authorization by becoming an E dependent. The enterprise plan should remain viable without unauthorized help. Review relationship documents, ages, school intentions, and any outside employment separately. The decision may be to hire a worker, change the operating hours, or wait to expand rather than treating informal family assistance as a legal staffing solution.
E-2 calls for treaty nationality, control of the enterprise, and funds committed irrevocably to commercial risk in a real business that is not marginal. The investor must be able to develop and direct the enterprise. No single dollar figure decides substantiality; the amount is assessed against the cost and nature of the particular undertaking.
Use records created closest to the event: signed agreements, payroll or bank evidence, corporate records, licences, civil documents, and dated correspondence. A careful review identifies what each record proves and what it does not prove. Do not solve a factual gap by copying a favourable label from another route. Make the next decision only after the missing fact is either documented, changed, or plainly described as unresolved.