Question about Green Card Timeline and Student Visa, and a follow up question

[mphensley]

I am a US Citizen by birth, my wife is from Bangladesh.
While visiting me on a tourist visa, we got married. I have started to look through all the paperwork, and process to get her a green card, but I am concerned about the I-864, Affidavit of Support requirement. I am a PhD graduate student in Economics and don't have that much of an income. I would meet (barely) the 125% income requirement if I am by myself, but I don't make enough to hit the 2 person family income requirement of ~$18,000. I also don't have the assets required to make up the difference (mainly because of the three times multiplier).

I thought of a possible work around. My wife has a PhD from a US university (its how we met). I thought we could get her a post-doc position at my university. As I understand it, she would be able to get a new student visa for the post-doc. My and her monthly graduate stipend would be enough to meet the minimum 125% requirement set forth earlier.

Questions:

1. If we apply for the post doc position, should we wait to file the I-130 form until the student visa is approved?

2. My wife entered the country at the end of December. I believe the Visa says she may stay up to 6 months. At the end of the six months does she have to leave the country to her country of origin, and then she is free to come back for another six months or is it any other country?

3. Would it be better if she stayed in the country until all the paperwork/procedures have been completed?

Thanks for your time, and help.
Let me know if you need anything clarified.

 

[newacct]

Now that she's decided to apply for a green card (has immigrant intent), she should not apply for a student visa. With immigrant intent, she also cannot re-enter the country on a student or tourist visa, so she should not leave the country until after she applies and gets either Advance Parole or a green card.

If you do not have enough income to sponsor her, you can get someone else (e.g. one of your parents) to co-sponsor.

It's not the visa that decides how long she can stay, it's the I-94. But since you guys are going to file for a green card, it doesn't really matter. Preferably you guys should file before her authorized stay runs out, but if she overstays before you file, it doesn't matter as she is applying as the spouse of a U.S. citizen. Once you file, she will be authorized to stay here while it is pending.