The proposed work needs appropriate authorization. Ownership or a purchase deposit does not provide it.
Assess the activity and status
Qualifying E spouses may work incident to appropriate status with required evidence. A pending application or unpaid arrangement is not automatically sufficient.
Each person needs appropriate identity and travel evidence, but E dependents do not have to become Canadian citizens or share the principal’s treaty nationality. If instead the spouse would help run the business, decide early whether that is as an owner or an employee, because ownership affects the nationality and control analysis of the enterprise itself. Discuss any independent employment plan and the children's future status questions before assuming household income depends on any one arrangement working out. A spouse may take employment on the basis of their own status rather than through a sponsoring employer, which matters for a family whose income during the first trading years will be uncertain. The principal investor must first establish treaty nationality, qualifying ownership or operational control, substantial funds that are committed and at risk, and a real enterprise that is not marginal. Unmarried children under twenty-one may accompany, but dependent status alone gives them no employment authorization, so their help cannot be assumed as free capacity in later years. Plan housing, schooling, and any spouse employment around the arrangement's actual durability rather than the confidence expressed in an offer letter.