Hi there!
I‘m not from Australia but from Austria amd my USC husband is living here with me!
Get the paperwork ready, in my opinion absolutely doable by yourself, and once you‘re married/have your marriage certificate, you send off your I130 petition to the Chicago lockbox which then will transfer it to one of the USCIS service centers!
If you have a joint sponsor you could even stay in Australia till the visa is approved just make sure you show enough for your reintent to have domicile in the US. For example we used my husbands bank account, job applications, proof that he starts school in the US again, temprary residency for Austria with the expiration date, voter registration and a letter from my mother in law, that we are going to move in with her!
1 - I believe you can post it to the USCIS Chicago Lockbox, the postage would just be more expensive. We left our paperwork in the US and our attorney filed them after we had left the country.
2 - Yes, you could possibly even stay in Australia until you were both ready to move if you had a joint sponsor and could prove intent to re-domicile. There are others going the the process in Australia now that are doing that.
3 - Potentially, also American drivers licence, voter registration, car ownership? IDK others who have done the process from abroad could probably advise better. My wife had to go back for grad school so we've not had to prove that.
4 -That fee sounds a little steep, and a whole heap of people on here will tell you lawyers are the worst etc. It is doable by yourself, however we used an attorney and found that since we both have a lot on the money was less costly than the time and stress. We've also had no requests for further information and had all our documents accepted on the first go around.
Holy #######, $7,500!!! You realize that is, like, seven times the total fees to go through this process? Absolutely do not fall for that scam. I was in a similar situation to you except switch Australia for Chile. My husband has his interview in a few weeks. You can definitely do the forms and go through the process yourself. A lawyer will not speed up your case and may even make mistakes that delay it. The only times I see lawyers recommended are for very complex cases (for example, the other day I was reading one about someone whose USC husband was also a bigamist in a third country).
Your situation sounds pretty similar to mine and I am nearly at the end of this process (finally!) I am a US Citizen and have lived in Australia for the last 4ish years with my partner who is a dual Aus/UK citizen. We got married last November and filed immediately after.
To your questions, based on my experience:
1. Absolutely. We posted our I-130 package to the Chicago lockbox from Sydney. For peace of mind, we paid up for tracked shipment so we got delivery confirmation. The one thing that was annoying was the only payment they would accept (at least at the time) was a check from a US bank account. I didn't have any checks with me linked to my US checking account, so I had to transfer money to my parents who then brought a check with them when they came to the wedding so that we could pay the filing fee. A little convoluted, but we got there! If they still aren't accepting electronic payment, I'm sure there are other ways you can deal with this step.
2. Like @redvines said, assuming you can prove US domicile, you don't even have to move back to the US until your partner has a visa and you can go together. If you can't prove US domicile otherwise, you would need to go back to the US first. I'll get to more on this in response to your next question, though, as it seems like this question is more about the Affidavit of Support than domicile. We used my sister and her husband as joint sponsors because we don't have US income and our assets here are not quite there to meet the minimum requirement. The AUD/USD exchange rate is not helping at the moment! Is there anyone who would be willing to be a joint sponsor with your spouse? If so, that's an option! If not, then establishing that you have sufficient ongoing US income will be important in demonstrating you, as the sole sponsor, are above the minimum poverty threshold.
3. Yes, having a US bank account is beneficial. Based on your situation, it sounds like you have two options for proving domicile: 1) Proving you were only living in Australia temporarily or 2) Showing intent, in good faith, to reestablish domicile. Have a read of the I-864 instructions for Item Number 5: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-864instr.pdf
For me, I went with option 1, because I never established permanent residency in Aus and have been here on a temporary skilled work visa. To provide evidence of this, I did the following:
Wrote a letter explaining the situation and listing out the documentary evidence I would provide, which included:
A copy of my work visa showing an expiration date, demonstrating temporary Australian residence
A copy of my voter profile obtained from my local elections office showing I have continued to vote in local, state and federal elections
A copy of my bank statement and a letter from my bank stating I have maintained a bank account in good standing
A copy of my current valid US drivers license
A copy of my retirement statement fund showing my permanent US address
A copy of my current CPA license demonstrating I have maintained professional US licensure while away
A letter from my sister noting we have arranged to stay with her upon our return to the U.S. until we can find our own place
The details of any similar letter you might write will be different, but that's just to give you some examples!
4. With the exception of a 1 hr consultation with an immigration attorney before we began the process we have not used any legal service/lawyer for any part of the process. I'm sure that whether you find a lawyer worth it or not is highly dependent on the specific lawyer used, but I have never wished we used one. None of the forms are very complicated (just long!) and while the process requires some time investment and organization, it's definitely doable on your own. Any question I've had I've been able to get answered on this forum, so use is as a resource. In retrospect, the initial advice we received from the attorney we consulted with turned out to be very wrong (the lady told us she had seen I-130 approvals be turned around in 1 month recently, while ours took 7) but again, that is probably luck of the draw in consulting with the wrong attorney.
