A spouse’s shares and rights should be documented accurately, but the marriage relationship alone does not establish the principal investor’s operational control. Review the actual ownership, voting and management arrangement.
Choose roles based on facts
Identify who is applying as the investor and which person holds relevant rights. A spouse may seek dependent status and is generally work authorized incident to valid E-2 or E-2S status; that work authorization is distinct from the principal’s eligibility. Unmarried children under 21 can seek dependent status without employment authorization.
Avoid treating family ties as a substitute for enforceable corporate authority. Document each spouse holding separately and decide who applies on the strength of the records rather than convenience. Hypothetical example: spouses jointly fund a rural tourism venture, one holding the larger interest while the other is named in the management agreement.
The ownership ledger and the governance documents identify what each actually holds and may do, and the application should follow that rather than allocating roles afterwards. A marriage does not aggregate two holdings into control for the applying investor, and the relationship evidence proves the family relationship only. A spouse may seek dependent status and a spouse in valid E-2 or E-2S status is generally work authorized incident to status; unmarried children under 21 may seek dependent status and are not authorized to work.
Keep the ownership file and the relationship file distinct.