Employment authorization comes with E-2 dependent spouse status itself, so no separate sponsorship is needed. Unmarried children under twenty-one may live in the United States and attend school, but their dependent status carries no permission to work.
The long horizon is what needs planning
Because E-2 status can be extended without a fixed statutory ceiling, families sometimes treat it as settled life, and then meet two limits at once. Children lose dependent eligibility at twenty-one, which for a family that arrives with a teenager will happen during the assignment rather than after it. And the category provides no direct path to permanent residence, so a household intending to remain indefinitely needs a separate route identified rather than assumed. Both points are easier to plan for at the start. Each family member is also assessed on their own activity, so a spouse intending to start a separate business needs their own analysis rather than an extension of the principal’s.
Family members need their own passports, civil records, and travel plan even though their eligibility follows the principal investor. The spouse’s status and work options should be checked under the current rules, while children’s age and school plans require separate attention. Decide whether to submit together or after an urgent business start; completeness is usually more useful than a forced shared timetable. Hypothetical example: a hearing-aid retailer’s investor plans to open before a child’s passport is issued; the family can evaluate a later dependant application rather than changing the business facts.