The payment plan is all at once. Do some reading in the Guides section here on VJ ( http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide2 ) as well as the individual form pages on the USCIS website to understand the process and costs involved.
Hey, congrats on your marriage.
It doesn't matter where you live, but your income will be important to the process. You have to fill out form I-864 as part of the process. It basically agrees that you will be financially responsible and as part of that you have to prove that your income is more than 125% of the poverty povertly level based on the size of your household.
If you wanted to move to where she is and have a job there , it wouldn't matter. Even if you didn't have a job there you could get a co-sponsor to fill out a form in addition to yours,
In regards to the process, you would file all the forms at once as a concurrent package. This would be I-130, I-485, I-693, I-864 and optional I-765 (for work permit) and I-131 (For Travel).
I think you are off on the fees...
You are looking at $1070 for the I-485 package (includes biometrics) and another $420 for the I-130.
I don't know of any payment plans...I believe they want you to show you are financially capable...getting payment plans for immigration would kind of defeat that.
Just wait to file until you can afford to do it...overstay is forgive for the spouse of a citizen.
Make sure to read the guides to get help and follow the instructions closely.
