Employment of E and L Non-Immigrant Spouses
February 22, 2002
On January 16, 2002, President Bush signed two laws that authorized the employment of spouses of E-1 Treaty Traders, E-2 Treaty Investors, and L-1 Intracompany Transferees. Prior to this, the transfer of international personnel to the United States or the formation of a business venture in the United States was often problematic because the accompanying spouse was not authorized to work. Often these spouses were highly accomplished professionals in their own right and the prospect of spending two or three years in the United States away from their profession and unable to work caused the proposed transfer or investment in the United States to fail.
Under the new law, the INS is required to provide the spouse of an E-1, E-2 or L-1 employee with open market employment authorization. This means that the spouses can work for any company in the United States or even form their own company and be employed by that company. It is important to note that this new law applies only to spouses and not to dependant children.
The INS published a memorandum on February 22, 2002, implementing these new laws. To obtain work authorization a spouse must file an application with the INS Service Center and wait for approval of the application before beginning work. Work authorization will be granted for up to two years at a time and is renewable so long as the spouse remains eligible under these laws.
Please contact an attorney in our office if you would like more information about obtaining work authorization for a dependent spouse.
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