From a immigration lawyer website...

[moelarrycheese 0]

When my fiancee came to the US, I/we prepared all the forms myself. We never had one problem or issue with any of the forms. She now has her permanent green card and is preparing to file citizenship in a few weeks, after we return from vacation (we're going to hawaii for a couple weeks). You just have to read all the instructions that come with the forms and provide everything they ask for, to the letter. No more, no less. One part of working within the system is waiting for things to run their normal course. It is unhelpful to constantly be making inquiries, infopass appt's. etc. when they are not requred. It only adds a layer of confusion for the poor incompetent government employees to try and wade through. Do everything you can to make the process as simple as possible-- don't change your address a lot, have a job, make enough money to remain outside the poverty classification, pay your fees on time, file your taxes, don't commit crimes or have a criminal recod, etc. All these things raise red flags at USCIS, and having a lawyer really won't make much difference in these situations. I've heard many stories where careless work by lawyers interested mainly in getting paid (by you) has caused delays and headaches for many people.

[Ladylethal 12]

I agree with Marina.

In my case I remember my last semester in Law School and having just talked to Luis about moving here instead of Luis moving to Brazil with me and talking to my International Law professor about it (we were studying things like inheritance and custody battles between nationals of different countries). He was the first one to go "if you do a fiance visa and move there it might be much easier than marrying here and moving there or getting the permanent visa for him to stay here".

So when we did get engaged I googled "fiance visa" and got the USCIS site and then I found an Orkut community (it's like My Space, but overrun by Brazilians) that were about couples waiting for the K1. One of the girls there pointed out that if I spoke English I should visit VJ.

Not once I considered a lawyer, from the beginning it seemed it was doable without one. After reading USCIS and knowing from Law School that it wasn't a requirement I knew I just had to research it well. Luis did some reading on his part as well but I'm the one who knew all the ins and outs of the entire process. After I got here Luis didn't even bother learning about the AOS, he'd just ask me. "You're the lawyer" he says.