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Comment by kchoudhu | Hacker News Reader

I filed:

* A permanent residency application based on my marriage.

* An application to remove conditions on said permanent residency

* An expedited naturalization application

We didn't bother getting a lawyer: the paperwork was easy. The problem isn't that the paperwork is hard. The problem is that there is so much paperwork to file.

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My wife and I are going through the same thing for her Adjustment of status, she's here on an F-1 visa. It took us a little while to get the paperwork all in order(she was away for work for a few months and we needed to sort out a number of things to give us the highest chance of getting approved). For us, the hardest part was sorting through all the tiny little details and that a lot of the I-xxx forms kept expiring every couple of months during this past year. I got laid off and had to start a new job during the process, but then I had to wait a couple months to have a few paychecks to prove I can support her, but oh wait, the paychecks have my filing status as 'single' because HR screwed up, now I have to wait a few more months to get some checks with the correct tax filing status... Everything that I've read and seem makes it seem like any single incorrect detail can tank the entire application process, so we octuple-checked our forms.

Have you undergone the interview yet?

I did the interviews 8 years ago (as part of a K-1 visa and then for permanent residency). It really wasn't a big deal. The guy barely looked through our supporting evidence and seemed more interesting in asking general questions about what my home country was like.

I think you're overstating it slightly. "Easy" is not the word I'd choose to use.

I too decided not to get a lawyer. It went fine. But it was not "easy" it was long, painful, and trivial to make an error (the paperwork is extremely poorly designed, we used online guides instead of the official instructions to avoid tons of gotchas, in particular with the financials).

People just need to be extremely careful without a lawyer. It isn't "easy" but it isn't so hard that you NEED a lawyer either (which could cost thousands).

True. It is definitely not easy. Another problem is the waiting periods these days is frustratingly long - so if you made a small mistake then it adds anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to remedy it, to an already lengthy process. This is why most people hire attorneys. The ironic thing is that attorneys make mistakes too - happened to me and a handful of people I know.

> The ironic thing is that attorneys make mistakes too - happened to me and a handful of people I know.

I commented on this above, but it nearly happened to me, too. We picked an immigration attorney to look over our paperwork, just to make sure we didn't make any glaring mistakes. While we did get some good suggestions, they missed something pretty big that we found on both the official government documentation and a number of forums, and had decided not to go with their services anymore. Luckily we caught it prior to submission.

I agree completely, having gone through this with my wife. It's easy to see how someone for whom English isn't their first language could have the best of intentions, yet still accidentally wind up on the wrong side of the law.

Went through the same thing years ago. We weighed all the paperwork submitted and it was just shy of 5 pounds.

Marriage-based PR is probably the easiest and most straightforward PR path there is.

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