IN THIS GUIDE · The household wants a child to finish a Canadian school year
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Settle the principal case before the calendar
The dependents' options follow the investor's status, so the principal case comes first: treaty nationality by citizenship, at least fifty percent treaty ownership, substantial capital genuinely committed and at risk in a real operating United States enterprise, non-marginality, and an actual develop-and-direct role. Owning the company is not itself permission to perform work in the United States; the status is. Settle these facts before choosing travel dates for anyone. A useful first file separates proof of treaty nationality, the ownership ledger, the source-and-path records and the business documents. That separation exposes an important choice early: whether the investor will genuinely control daily development of the business, or whether the planned role is too remote from the enterprise to support the application.
Assess each dependent on their own footing
An eligible spouse and unmarried children under 21 may accompany or follow the investor, but each family member has their own application, eligibility and outcome. Spouse means a legally married spouse. Track each child's age against the under-21 limit across the whole plan, since a late arrival moves that date closer. No shared appointment or shared decision date is guaranteed for a household. Collect the civil documents that prove the marriage and each parent-child relationship, and check whether any prior immigration history affects the intended sequence. A family may choose to wait for a later dependent application, but that choice does not give a spouse or child the investor’s travel permission before the dependent status is granted.
Enrollment is a calendar record, not permission
A Canadian school confirming a completion date, or a United States school issuing an acceptance letter, tells you nothing about immigration permission. Neither residence in a district nor payment of fees or taxes creates status or work authorization. Use enrollment records for what they are: evidence of the family's plan and calendar. Immigration permission comes from the status granted and the period of stay recorded on arrival. Keep an arrival record, not only a school calendar, in the working file. If a move is delayed, confirm the person’s current authorization before changing study, travel or work arrangements; a private timetable cannot extend a period of admission.
Design the staggered move deliberately
Write the sequence down: who travels first, who stays with the child, when the household moves, and what the enterprise needs from the investor in the meantime. Decide how a remaining parent's later arrival would be processed and what happens if their step takes longer. Then check the plan against the investor's own authorized stay, because a family calendar built around June has to fit inside that period. Choose a contingency point before deposits, leases or non-refundable travel are committed. The family should decide which event—approval, visa issuance where required, or admission—must occur before each person takes the next irreversible step, because those events are not interchangeable.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.