The dispute is not itself a decision about the spouse's work permission, but its effects on the principal's case may affect derivative status. Verify the status actually held and its evidence, such as an E-2S I-94, or another valid authorization. Distinguish seeking a job from actually starting work.
Plan around each person's own process
Each family member may need a separate application and can be scheduled independently, so shared dates are not guaranteed. Record everyone's citizenship, age and current status. If household income depends on the spouse working, avoid commitments that assume employment begins on arrival.
Note also that a visa's expiry date differs from the authorized stay recorded on the I-94, which matters for school enrolment and for later extension planning. Set the household's dates against what is actually issued rather than what is expected. A visa's validity period and the admission period recorded on arrival are separate, and school registration, a lease and a spouse's employment plans should be built on the second.
Where the territory question delays the opening, ask what the family does with the intervening months, since a plan assuming everyone relocates at signing can leave a spouse holding a start date the process cannot meet. Derivative status also ends when the principal's ends, so any date the family treats as fixed deserves checking against the principal's recorded end date first.