hey everyone welcome back to my channel this is Adrien Panda business and immigration attorney and today we're going to continue our talk about the E2 visa and specifically the E2 work permit now it's background certain E2 um Visa holders are eligible for employment authorization now the first one is the E2 principal right the principal investor the main applicant who applies for the E2 Visa is eligible for employment authorization however the E2 principal is only eligible to work for the company for the organization that sponsored the Visa right the primary organization here now the E2 principal
spouse right is eligible for General employment authorization work authorization in the United States so what that means is that the individual can work anywhere as long as the job doesn't require the individual to have a security clearance or the job is only limited for to US citizens these are mainly government and government contract jobs the individual the E2 dependent spouse right is eligible to work um anywhere in the United States they can start their own company um they can work for the E2 principal business or they can work anywhere else right now regarding the E2
work permit itself years ago um the E2 spouse dependent spouse had to file a separate application for employment auth authorization and only after they received the employment authorization document the card itself was the E2 dependent spouse allowed to start working now this has changed um the employment authorization was incident to status um and what that means is that the spouse can work the moment they obtain E2 status so just to explain this more clearly so if you're your spouse is the the E2 principle and your spouse has received an E2 principal Visa then you as
their spouse can apply for an E2 Visa as and you will be considered an E2 dependent spouse your Visa is linked to the principal now the moment you receive that Visa or if you're applying for a change of status the moment you receive um your approval notice that you're now an E2 status from then on you have work authorization employment authorization to work in the United States there's no need to file any extra applications for employment authorization as of the shooting of this video in um January 2025 um one thing to note right children um
this often comes up dependent children who are eligible for E2 um dependent status as well so these would be children under 21 they are not eligible for employment authorization they're eligible for the E2 dependent Visa in status but not employment authorization so the E2 um employment authorization is only given to the spouse of the E2 principal um one thing I want to note here cuz um a lot of times this this comes up the free employment authorization right the fact that the E2 dependent spouse does not have to work for the E2 company but rather
can work freely in the United States provides for a lot of planning opportunity so very often um because the spouse receives a greater benefit in a lot of ways because you're not limited to just one single company or one single organization a lot of times it's worth considering and planning who will be the Principal E2 investor applicant and who will be the spoused because in some cases what I see very often is sometimes um one of the you know and the couple one of the two members of the of the married couple um has you
know entrepreneurial Spirit they want to open more than one business is they have several different ideas they want to try well it might make sense for that individual not to be the the principal applicant but rather to be the the E2 dependent spouse um similarly certain professions for example I see this a lot with engineering Finance Etc um where there's a lot of job opportunity and and you know frankly High pay in the US in those cases it makes sense for the for that spouse who has that the that career or those you know professional
that professional background to be the E2 spouse so they can seek out jobs um outside of the E2 business in the United States so anyway um the bottom line is the spouse of the E2 principal is eligible for employment authorization and remember that this provides for some very um you know good creative planning that you can use to bring out the maximum advantages and benefits out of your um E2 Visa thank you so much for watching um I'll continue to post videos I hope you find it helpful and if you have any additional ideas for
topics or anything please add them in the comments and I'll try to cover those as well thank you [Music]
