One may hold the investor status as the person developing and directing the enterprise, and a spouse accompanying in dependent status is employment-authorized incident to status and may work in the business or elsewhere. Where both own and direct the enterprise, each may be able to qualify in their own right.
Decide the roles before the shares are issued
Two structures work and they should be chosen deliberately. If one spouse will run the franchise and the other will work outside it, name the investor clearly and let the ownership reflect it, and the second spouse's employment authorization comes with dependent status. If both will run it, consider whether each should hold status in their own right, which gives each of them independence from the other's status and matters if circumstances change. In either case at least half the ownership must be held by treaty nationals, and the ownership documents should be settled before the corporation issues shares rather than amended afterwards. Children may study in dependent status but may not work, and that status ends at twenty-one.
Hypothetical example: a Tyendinaga distributor of compostable packaging will be operated by one spouse while the other expects to take unrelated paid work. Decide early who is the treaty investor and who accompanies as a dependant, because their permissions differ. A spouse in E-2 status is generally authorized to work incident to status, while children may study but cannot work. Age, marital status, and expected school dates belong in the family file. A calendar of birthdays and school transitions helps the family choose a move date that does not create an unexpected loss of options.