US Immigration from Ghana

How will my closed and expunged Department of Child Services case affect my K-1 visa processing? Should I get a lawyer before I file to be on the safe side? I was convicted of child neglect/abandonment almost 2 years ago. DCI was investigated me by visiting my house but closed the case the same day. I never lost my child or had to go to jail for the conviction. I served 4 hours of community service and the state expunged the case with no state or court costs to pay. Although it is expunged, how will this affect my visa filing process? Will I still need to acknowledge it on my visa filing paper although it s expunged or is it something that will show up on my background check with the USCIS regardless? I do have court proof of clearance and expungement.

I m seeking an affordable, legit immigration lawyer in Tennessee (middle TN preferably) to help me start and file for K-1 visa. Any info or leads are greatly appreciated

FYI, I just got an email today from the NVC that they have sent my k1 application to the Ghana Embassy. It has been there since March 2020. Good to see movement from NVC to Ghana finally.

Question: Should I wait to hear from the Ghana embassy that they have received the application before we fill out the DS-160 or should I go ahead now?

We got interviewed during the second week of February, 2020. CO took our passports and gave us collection slip that had instructions on how to get our passports back through DHL. COVID upends everything a month later. Fast-forward to May-June 2021, after several calls and some e-mails to the embassy, the case status was updated - now some of the passports have expired and we are required to submit new passports. Almost three months after following the processes (provide details of documents and make payment to DHL so DHL will submit same to embassy and pickup the documents to their office and then call you to pick them up) that the embassy asked us to, we still have not received the passports.

Has anyone here gone through similar experience? Does it take that much time to get back expired documents from the embassy?

Any suggestion on how to resolve this issue will be appreciated.

Updated visa issuances for July 2021 below. There has been a lot of discussion whether the Ghana embassy was still conducting interviews, it looks like they are but still at a lower rate than pre-COVID.

K1: lower visa issuances than June 2017, but the same number as July 2019.

IR1: stable for the past 3 months, but averaging about a third to a half of pre-COVID levels.

CR1s: Haven't been CR1s for awhile due to the length of time it is taking to get through.

What I continue to be struck by is how the operating levels at different embassies throughout Africa vary even though most have low levels of COVID. Many other African embassies are processing CR1s and applications appear to be moving through much faster than the Ghana embassy.