N-400 - should I even attempt?

[fifteenyconfusion 0]

Hello, everyone. About 12 years ago, when I was 10, my parents were sponsored into the US by my uncle. I was then approved for a green card. Two or three years later, my parents left the country due to their parents' urgent medical conditions and brought us along with them. I never returned to the US for just under 8 years after that. Then, January of 2022, I came back via SFO airport and was held back for questioning. Over the 3 hour process, I was grilled on what I had been doing over the 8 years since I'd left, and had to pay a $585 fine to fill out and submit an I-193. They also put on my passport, "ARC OUT 8 years, ACH RES REQ's". A month or so after that, I went through the green card renewal process and got the renewed green card about 8 months later.

 

I am currently a software engineer working in Seattle. I have not been in so much as been in a traffic stop, and file my taxes fine every year.

 

In about 2 years and 6 months, my 5-year continuous residence will be up and I plan on applying for naturalization then. It is hard to find people with similar situations to me on the internet, and different sources say different things, ranging from

• Don't worry at all and submit, they don't care about your travel history past 5 years.
• Submit, but expect a lot of questions and a possible denial.
• Don't submit at all, they may look at your past travel history and decide you shouldn't even have gotten a renewal and may give you a notice to appear in court and deport you. 

 

My questions to the knowledgeable people on this sub are:

•  When submitting my naturalization, do they care about travel past 5 years?
• Will the stamp on my passport give me problems (should I put that in with my application)? 
• Are they able to look up travel information from that time I was out of the country, and will that cause issues?
• Do I need to hire a lawyer when I start my naturalization proceedings?

 

Thank you very much in advance.

Edited June 16 by fifteenyconfusion
typo