Sponsor and spouse currently living overseas

[japanval]

New to the forum, I'm sorry if this has been asked before but I couldn't find a relevant thread. I'm a US citizen currently living in Japan, my wife is a Japanese national. We were married in Japan, and have been married and continuously living/traveling together for 11 years. I'm starting to research what we'll need to do to move to the US, and it looks like I can't sponsor her for a green card unless I'm living and working in the US. Is this correct? I'm on a multi-year timeline for moving back, and I was hoping to get her legal residence status so that we could move together, rather than have her live with her parents here in Japan while I get things set up in the US.

Any links or threads that you could point me to would be greatly appreciated.