Help with Marriage, work permits, and Immigration - Fiancé on HB1 visa

[jdude 0]

I've got a couple questions regarding marriage and immigration that I was hoping somebody could help me with. This situation is more complicated than the average, so unfortunately non of the standard FAQs mention my specific questions.

I am an American born and raised in Canada. I am now studying here in the USA (working on my Masters degree in Houston at Rice University). My girlfriend from Canada (now fiancé) has been living with me for the past 4 months. She came to visit me in Houston, applied for a job as a teacher and was hired. She then went through a rather complicated and drawn out process of getting an HB1 visa, which finally worked out. She had to go home to get her visa issued (something we Canadians have to do thanks to the visa waver program) but she has the visa now. Unfortunately, the whole visa process took so long that she no longer has a job (but she does have the HB1 visa). We are told that the visa can be used to work as a teacher still, as long as she gets a job with the same school district that the original visa was issued to. Unfortunately, we aren't sure how easy it will be for her to get a job now that the school year has started and most of the jobs in the Houston school district are filled.

Anyways, shortly before she left, we decided that we were going to get married soon!!!

My question is: If we get married this month, and she has trouble finding another teaching job on her HB1 visa, will it be possible for her to get a work authorization as my spouse and find another job? I ask this because we're no longer confident that she will be able to work on the HB1. She could apply to transfer the HB1 to a different employer but that is filled with restrictions and would cost thousands of dollars and take many more months. Besides, if we are going to get married anyways, can't she be authorized as my spouse and avoid all that tricky HB1 stuff?

The other issue I have is with my income. Since I'm a poor grad student, I don't have a large income and I heard that there might be issues with us marrying if my income is low. She was supposed to have an income as a teacher, but the visa took so long that she lost her job, so now we're kind of out of luck as far as income goes.

If anybody has any advice for us, please let me know. Thanks in advice!