Signing the engagement does not necessarily create business ownership. Check the capacity in which each person signs and the obligations accepted. If shares are also allocated, their distribution and the owners' citizenship enter the enterprise nationality analysis. The spouse's status and permission to work remain separate questions. Before allocating shares, decide what each allocation is for. Shares issued to reflect a contribution of money have one effect on the nationality analysis; shares issued for estate planning or family fairness have the same effect, whatever the intention behind them. Ownership is counted as it stands, not as it was meant.
Decide ownership and dependent roles separately
Write down who will hold shares, who signs the broker engagement, and who intends to work in the business. A legally married spouse may accompany the principal, along with unmarried children under 21, but each family member has an individual process and no shared guaranteed date. Employment authorization for a qualifying E spouse is evidenced through documents such as the I-94 annotation; check what current proof applies before an employer relies on it.
A second decision follows from the first: who will actually run the enterprise day to day. The investor must develop and direct it, so an arrangement where one spouse holds the shares while the other manages needs thinking through rather than assembling by accident. Where both intend to work, settle which of them is the principal applicant before anyone signs a subscription agreement or a lease.