smpcole

All, thank you so much for your detailed and thoughtful comments!
 
We are still leaning towards hiring a lawyer.  The bottom line is that we are simply not comfortable doing it ourselves and would feel better if we had a single person we could go to with all of our questions, who would be with us from start to finish.
 
One thing that I've seen some people mention are "red flags."  What are some examples?  Neither of us has ever been convicted of a crime or anything like that, but we met under somewhat unusual circumstances, and I send my fiance money periodically to help her make ends meet (she's putting herself through university and supporting her unemployed mom).  Do you think either of those things would raise eyebrows at immigration?

The main advantage I see to having a lawyer is that they could tell us exactly what we need to do, and when.  If we did it ourselves, in addition to the amount of work to actually assemble all of the necessary documents, we would have to spend a lot of time researching what we have to do next, exactly which documents to include, etc.  I am both very thorough and very indecisive, so I could easily see that doubling the amount of time it would take!
 
True, in fact the lawyer we talked to splits up the spousal visa application process into two parts, so theoretically we wouldn't even need to hire her for all of it.
 
Thanks again for all your advice--that is a huge help!

@Luckycuds Thanks so much for your detailed reply! 😁
 
I can afford a lawyer, though it would be a tough financial pill to swallow.  However, since our marriage/life together is on the line I want to make sure I do things RIGHT.  I am not very confident in my ability to DIY it--I've never dealt with immigration before and I don't really know anyone personally who's been through the process.  Plus I am about to move to a new city and start a new job, which I expect to be pretty demanding, so idk if I will have time/energy to spend hours pouring over forms, forums, etc. in my free time.    So having a lawyer might help streamline the process...