The purchase and inventory count do not themselves authorize US employment.
Check permission before commercial activity
An eligible E spouse is employment-authorized incident to the appropriate status when the required status evidence is present. A pending case or family ownership should not be treated as the spouse’s present work authorization.
Do not let the inventory ledger become a work-authorization assumption. The principal should document treaty nationality, qualifying ownership, irrevocably committed capital exposed to commercial risk, substantiality, and a real non-marginal enterprise. Development and direction normally rest on 50% ownership or operational control. A spouse may be employment-authorized incident to valid E status with the required evidence, but a pending application, marriage or shared ownership does not authorize present sales activity. Decide who will count stock, negotiate and serve customers before closing, assigning U.S. productive tasks only to authorized people. E-2 offers no direct green-card path.
Hypothetical example: Spouses based in Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley buy an organic-seed retailer, and the investor’s spouse wants to market inventory while the visa case remains pending. They use an independent service for the closing count and preserve revised purchase documents, while the spouse avoids taking orders or receiving U.S. compensation. After admission in qualifying E status, the spouse may generally work incident to status and keeps appropriate evidence. Until then, family funding does not supply permission. The principal separately proves Canadian nationality, majority control and binding capital commitments; a jointly signed purchase agreement cannot replace those eligibility elements.