#20 @John Rogers
Thank you for the explanation/response. I most certainly know that certainty is NEVER guaranteed in life and is a fool's game perhaps so I'm not looking for that.
I was asking for your opinion, which you have given in quite an in-depth manner, and I appreciate the opportunity to always gain knowledge from someone such as yourself and Michelle. Your experience in such matters can only inform the likely outcome but as you've noted "it is not an exact science".
At 5 years + you say one has a "decent chance". What factors have you seen that inform you of "decent"?
Is an overstay - applying at the 5+ year mark - with no other issues (criminal or otherwise) considered "really, really decent" as opposed to "iffy" or just plain "decent" perhaps - (once again not asking for an absolute but from what you've seen in your practice)?
I'm sure there are others on here who have probably asked this of you prior but since I'm relatively new to this forum and like to try and read through it I can't recall if any of these specifics having been asked before.
As I'm gathering (but already have known this) there are NO ABSOLUTES and of course any information you provide won't be "up to date' as the past has already passed but surely you have a decent (see what I did there) understanding of the lay of the land in general one would suppose.
Nonetheless I appreciate your thoughtfulness and patience with us lay people out here just trying to get a sense of it all. As you can imagine it can cause anxiety for some of us when we wish to have access to the United States.