The investor, spouse and children are excluded from the qualifying job count. Family immigration eligibility is a separate assessment.
Do not combine dependent planning with employment evidence
Review eligible derivatives and case-specific age rules, including CSPA where applicable. Their inclusion does not multiply the principal’s investment automatically or satisfy the employment requirement. A spouse and unmarried children under 21 may qualify as derivatives.
Each family member is separately admissible, and shared facts about the funds can affect several files at once, but derivative eligibility still depends on your petition standing. Derivative eligibility depends on the child being unmarried and under 21, and the practical difficulty is that immigrant categories can involve waiting, sometimes years, depending on the applicant's country of chargeability. Book a session where the child's circumstances are the agenda rather than a footnote to the investor's petition, and cover their education timeline, any employment, marriage plans, and current visa history. A derivative's eligibility is assessed at points in the process rather than continuously, and a child's position can change with the passage of time in a way a spouse's does not, which makes the calendar part of the analysis rather than an administrative afterthought.