US Immigration from Latvia

We got our K1 visa in late 2019 and got married in Jan 2020 just before Covid hit. My wife is unemployed due to Covid and doesn't meet the i-864 income requirements at the moment so we have applied for AOS yet.

That means I am technically out of status.

My wife's family lives in southern Texas and we live in Austin TX. I am very reluctant to go to south for a visit because I have no clue what would happen when coming back and getting into one of the many inland border control checkpoints.

Has anyone had the same situation (expired K1 visa, married with proper certificate and everything, but not applied for AOS yet) and tried to cross the checkpoints?

If so do you get a lot of investigation or you just have to prove you're married?

Thanks in advance

Edit: I am working remotely for UK in case anyone's wondering if I am burden on US economy .

Mu husband got a job for 18 months in Middle East and we are moving there in the middle of January. The thing is that I have a Green Card interview scheduled at the beginning of January and I am not sure if it is better to attend it or withdraw application and re-file for spousal visa.

As far as I know with Green Card it is not advisable to leave country for more than 6 months and we are still not sure if we do not stay longer than 18 months overseas.

I was researching and it seems my husband can use form i-130 for me if we decide to re-file and start everything all over again at the end of his contract? As far as I am aware in order to apply for CR-1 he needs to live in U.S which will not be the case.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. P.S : we do not mind to pay application fee again.