An E-2 spouse is employment-authorised incident to status and is not confined to the treaty business, so she may take unrelated employment. Children under twenty-one hold derivative status and may study but may not work, and they cease to qualify on turning twenty-one.
The spouse is free to work; the children are not
For a household considering a boatyard purchase this materially changes the arithmetic, because a second income can be earned outside a business that will absorb most of the family's capital. Employment authorisation for an E-2 spouse arises from the status itself rather than from a separate application, though employers and licensing bodies frequently want a document they can copy, so families often obtain evidence of it anyway. Children are treated differently and the difference is worth planning around.
A derivative child may attend school, including post-secondary study, but may not take a job, and at twenty-one the derivative status ends regardless of what the parents' business is doing. Because E-2 offers no direct path to permanent residence, a child approaching that age does not simply roll into another category; they need a route of their own, whether that is a student status, an employment category once qualified, or something else. Working that out at nineteen is considerably easier than at twenty-one.
- USCIS: E-2 Treaty Investors
- U.S. Department of State: Treaty Trader and Treaty Investor visas
- Department of State: 9 FAM 402.9, Treaty trader and treaty investor guidance
- U.S. Department of State: Treaty countries
- eCFR: 8 CFR 214.2, Special requirements for admission, extension and maintenance of status