Hello Visa Journey community,
I have been in the US on a continuous and valid H1B visa and I94 for the past 10 years. I married a US citizen in 2023 and are preparing to apply for marriage based AOS for myself. I also have an employer based I140. Here are some of the details:
* We have dated since 2018 and got married in 2023.
* We have been living together since Nov 2021 in my partner's house. They bought the house in 2019, before we decided to get married and before I moved in, hence I am not on the deed.
* After getting married, we have joint documents like bank statements, utilities, home insurance, holiday cards, etc.
* We have plenty of pics together and with family and friends.
* we both have our passport, birth certs, driver license, marriage cert, SSN cards, tax transcripts, etc.
we have friends who are in the similar visa + citizen case, but they all applied with the help of a lawyer. We would like to apply for the AOS by ourselves since I believe our case is straight forward. We are a little scared to apply by ourselves since there is a lot of documentation. I also have questions around how to travel on my H1b when my AOS is pending with USCIS.
* Is there anyone in this community who is similar visa + citizen case who applied themselves and not through a lawyer? Did you face any issues/RFE?
* are there any blogs you followed on how to write the cover letters, affidavits for support of our relationship, make packages for each form, etc?
* are there any immigration firms who can just help us with legal advice related to paperwork, travel, expiry of H1B while AOS is pending, etc.?