Alvva or filing it yourself?

Yes. All USCIS forms (N-400, I-130, I-485, I-131, I-765, I-821D, I-751, I-90, I-864) are free to download from uscis.gov and you only pay the government filing fee. DIY works well for simple, English-fluent applicants with clean cases who are comfortable reading USCIS instructions. The risk is that a mistake — missing document, wrong category, unsigned form — can trigger a Request for Evidence, delay your case 3–6 months, or cause a denial where you lose the filing fee.

Missing or uncertified translations of foreign civil documents (birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce decrees) is the most common RFE driver. Every non-English document must have a certified English translation with a translator's statement of competency. Other frequent mistakes: income below 125% of Federal Poverty Guidelines on Form I-864 without a joint sponsor, filing I-485 without a current priority date on the Visa Bulletin, and forgetting wet-ink signatures on every required form.

No. Every USCIS form must be submitted in English, and every non-English supporting document (birth certificates, police records, evidence) must include a certified English translation. Some USCIS instructions are available in Spanish as reference material, but the filing itself is English-only. Alvva lets you prepare your entire application in Spanish — we handle the English form generation and translations.

Our proprietary AI — trained on thousands of actual past USCIS filings and known RFE patterns — scans your answers and documents before you submit. It flags missing evidence, inconsistent address histories, income shortfalls, wrong eligibility categories, and missing translations, all of which are top RFE drivers. A licensed immigration attorney then reviews the flagged items. DIY has no equivalent quality-control pass.

USCIS filing fees are non-refundable. A denial means losing the fee and starting over — and for some forms, also dealing with consequences like out-of-status time counting for inadmissibility. If you are denied, review the denial notice carefully to see if you can appeal, motion to reopen/reconsider, or refile with better evidence. At that point, hiring an immigration attorney (not Alvva) is usually the right call.

DIY is cheaper if it works on the first try. But a single RFE response typically costs $300–$800 if you hire an attorney to help with it — more than Alvva's service fee for most cases. A denial is far more expensive: you lose the USCIS filing fee (e.g., $2,115 for I-485) and your immigration timeline resets. For most applicants, Alvva's $195–$995 is insurance against those costs.