No. The spouse of an E-2 investor holds derivative E-2 status and is employment-authorized incident to that status, so she may work for the business without investing. Children may study but not work.
Derivative spouses may work; children may not
The spouse of a principal E-2 investor is admitted in derivative E-2 status and is treated as authorized to work for any employer, including the enterprise, without needing a separate employment authorization document. Her admission record should be annotated to reflect the spousal status, which is what a U.S. employer will look for when completing employment-verification paperwork. She does not need to own any part of the business or to have contributed funds. Unmarried children under twenty-one may accompany the investor and attend school, but they cannot work, and they lose derivative status at twenty-one. Because both partners' families would be in the United States, each family's documents are attached to that partner's own application. If a spouse is not a Canadian citizen, that does not affect her derivative eligibility; nationality matters for the investor and the enterprise's ownership, not for dependants.
Hypothetical example: a Canadian investor opens a residential window-cleaning company and plans to move with a spouse and a twenty-year-old child. The family review should identify each person's status and intended activity. A spouse in derivative E-2 status may generally work, with the admission record serving as employment evidence, but the child may study and may not work; the child's derivative status ends at twenty-one. Birth and marriage records settle the relationship, while passports and the principal's visa record settle travel documentation. The family must decide whether the child needs an independent study or work path before paying for a move.