A spouse admitted in this category is employment-authorized incident to status and may take any lawful employment, including starting a business of her own. Unmarried children under twenty-one may accompany the investor and attend school, and they hold no work authorization.
One household, three different sets of permissions
The spouse’s position here is materially better than under a professional admission, where a dependent may not work at all, and that difference sometimes decides which route a household prefers even when both are technically available. It also matters commercially, because a spouse who can be employed elsewhere reduces the pressure on the new business to support the family immediately, which touches the requirement that the enterprise be more than marginal. Children need the same calendar discipline as in any other category.
Derivative eligibility ends at twenty-one, and a business bought when a child is nineteen will outlast that status. Where a child intends to attend a college or university in any event, a student route is often the cleaner answer and should be arranged on its own timetable rather than assumed to follow the parent. Each family member’s intended activity, not the household’s convenience, decides what they need.