The spouse is employment-authorised incident to E-2 dependent status and may work for any employer. Children may study but not work, and dependent status ends at twenty-one.
Dependants of an employee have the same rights as an investor's
The dependent provisions do not distinguish between the family of a treaty investor and the family of a treaty employee. The spouse holds employment authorisation by virtue of status and may take outside employment without a separate grant of permission, though an employer may want documentary evidence. Children in dependent status may enrol in school and are listed among the classes permitted to study, but they have no employment authorisation and their dependent status ends at twenty-one.
One point deserves emphasis for an employee rather than an investor: the whole household's permission rests on both the employee's own position and the enterprise's continuing qualification. If the enterprise's treaty ownership changes or the employment ends, the consequences reach the spouse's job and the children's schooling at the same time, which is worth understanding before a second household income is assumed.