With his criminal background unfortunately there is no way you can get an approval on your own or at all. You would be saving a lot of money and time and headache if you just go the CR1 route with a lawyer from the beginning. You should shop around some more but that rate does seem right for someone with that kind of a criminal record. It’s gonna take A LOT of work to get this approved I’m sure you know that but be prepared for the long long and very stressful road. There are some people in this forum who have been successful with getting approved with a criminal background but I don’t think theirs were are serious as yours but it might be worth it doing a search here and see how they handled it. Good luck.
