Account ownership does not itself provide employment authorization.
Separate funding rights and status
Qualifying E spouses may work incident to appropriate status with required evidence. A shared account, pending case or unpaid business task is not an automatic work basis.
Separate the money analysis from employment authorization. A joint account may establish access or entitlement to funds, but it creates no U.S. status for either spouse. Identify the treaty-national investor, confirm that qualifying nationals own at least 50 percent of the enterprise, and document how the principal will develop and direct it through ownership or operational control. Trace capital from lawful sources into substantial, irrevocable, at-risk commitments for a real operating and nonmarginal business. An eligible E-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status, yet a pending application or shared ownership does not permit early work. Decide who will perform opening tasks only after mapping each person’s status. Remember that E-2 itself has no direct green-card route.
Hypothetical example: a Magog bookseller and her husband jointly fund an American book-and-coffee shop, but she will be the principal investor. He wants to negotiate supplier orders and manage opening-week staff before receiving E-2 dependent status. The couple should document their joint entitlement, her Canadian citizenship, company ownership, purchase commitments, and operating plan while postponing his U.S. work. Once admitted in qualifying spousal status, he may work incident to that status; the joint account never supplied the authorization.