First Namaste
Second --- by non-immigrant, you mean that you are here in the USA with a visa ( we need to know: what visa, when did you enter the country, do you have SSN, when did you get married , does the child have SSN , was the child born in the USA, some details of your employment such as , research, regular W-2, business, etc. etc. ) then generally there is nothing that requires the spouse to be employed;
Third -- generally filing jointly depends on answers to some of the questions / information requested above;
Fourth -- I am assuming that by "exception" you mean exemption for filing. Or did you mean exemptions for purposes of filling out W-4 with your employer ( withholding instructions ) ?
Please answer my questions and I will circle back and help
Namaste ji
pk
