Purchasing equipment does not provide the spouse’s employment authorization.
Review the intended activity and status
An E spouse is employment-authorized incident to valid spousal status, with the required status evidence. A pending application, ownership record or unpaid task is not automatically permission to operate the business.
Purchasing or owning equipment does not authorize anyone to operate it in the United States. The principal investor should wait for valid E-2 status before performing productive work and must still show treaty nationality, a qualifying ownership structure, substantial capital irrevocably committed at risk, a non-marginal operating enterprise, and development and direction through 50% ownership or operational control. Once holding valid E-2 spousal status, a qualifying husband or wife has incident-to-status employment authorization; a pending case is not that status, and children do not receive this work benefit. The common mistake is calling hands-on activity “unpaid setup” when it actually advances the business. E-2 provides no direct route to a green card.
Hypothetical example: a Canton of Hatley pottery-studio owner buys kilns for a proposed American ceramics workshop. Her husband plans to calibrate them and teach paid classes while both applications await decisions. He should not perform those services merely because the family owns the machines. They inventory permissible preparatory decisions, arrange independent installation if necessary and schedule his teaching only after his own E-spouse status evidence takes effect. Their marriage record supports derivative status; the equipment invoices establish neither admission nor employment authority.