K1 Visa applying from Abroad

[CJPinEcuador 396]

I am also currently filing and overseas (waiting now on NOA1, so just started the process). I'm using my parent's address as the place to receive any mail (this will also be the place I move back to to wait for my fiancé). I am planning to stay with him abroad to finish my work contract (I've lived abroad for 10 years) and then I'll move back to the US later this year to secure employment and get settled before he follows (hopefully just 6-8 months after). We decided to do it this way to also be together for the majority of the time we are waiting on NOA1 to become NOA2 and to lessen the amount of time we would be apart. We decided on K-1 over CR-1 as we do want to be legally married in the US and not in the foreign country we currently live in (for several personal reasons). 

 

As for filing, I am using a lawyer as we had some tricky things with foreign name changes/previous visas/divorces and just wanting general guidance (ours was recommended by another expat who had also used the same lawyer for a case also in the same country). So we sent our application and papers with a mule to the US, who sent it to our lawyer who put everything in order and sent it to the lockbox. But I know if we hadn't done it that way we could have also sent it direct via DHL.