katiebooker

I'm struggling with how to pass the time while waiting for my visa. I don't have my NOA2 yet (~6 months in, TSC) so I likely won't have my visa until close to the end of the year, if not longer. I know the general advice is to stay busy but I'm having trouble doing so. Here's my current situation:

• 10 months ago I moved across the country to a new city to move in with my parents after finishing my second degree (I'm changing careers). I don't have a job and probably won't get one before moving to the US because I have no experience in my new field and it doesn't feel fair to have an employer take the time to train me and then up and leave after a few months. Although I don't have work to keep me busy, I do go to a coworking space every day to get out of the house. I'm trying to spend that time building my skills so that when I do move I'll be hireable but it's hard to focus when I don't actually HAVE to do anything and I end up spending most of the day obsessing over the visa process instead. Not having a job means I also don't have a lot of money to do things outside of "work".
• I don't have any friends in this city. I talk to some people at the coworking space, and I talk to some people at the fitness classes I go to, but nothing where we'd spend time together outside of those places. I've tried meetups before but whenever I mention that I'll be moving to the US sometime this year (I've tried to avoid it but it always ends up coming up) the person I'm talking to loses any interest in being friends. 
• I don't feel comfortable at my parents house because 1) I'd been living on my own for years before moving in with them and 2) I have a stepmother that makes me feel constantly judged (like asking me why I am not more like her favourite niece) who is always home because she is retired. I also don't have any space in the house to buy/store anything I'd need for any of my hobbies so that's out of the picture too.

So not only does getting this visa mean that I'll finally get to be with my spouse after 5 years, but I'll also get to live in an environment where I'm comfortable, have a job again, make some friends, and (after wanting one my entire life) get a dog. I feel like right now I'm stuck in a holding pattern and things are going to get so much better once I'm in the US and it's making the wait feel like forever.

With that mini vent out of the way, what are you guys doing to pass the time?

 

My husband (USC) and I (Canadian) are looking for a lawyer for a CR-1 application. We spoke to one that we really liked that told us about AOS as an alternative to the CR-1. Regarding AOS they said that as long as there was no intent to immigrate at the point of entry, it is legal even if we knew that it was an option ahead of time. 
 

We're sticking with the CR-1 (married last month in Canada) but now I'm wary about the lawyer. The lawyer specializes in immigration so I doubt they'd give us bad information but I researched AOS after the meeting since I hadn't heard of it and for our situation it seems like it's bad news. The whole point of us hiring a lawyer is to avoid delays by getting it right the first time so I want to make sure we're hiring someone good before giving them thousands of dollars for something we can do ourselves.

So my question is this: is what the lawyer told us correct? I'd really like to hire them since they were great in every other way, but I want to check on this first because if they gave us bad information I know I'm not going to be able to trust anything else they say. 

Apologies if this is in the wrong place!