A quiet but real benefit: this process made me document my own career better going forward

An unexpected side effect I want to name: the discipline of documenting my achievements rigorously for this case changed how I track my own work going forward, in a way I think will genuinely benefit me regardless of the immigration outcome. I now keep an ongoing, lightweight record of achievements, recognition, and significant contributions as they happen, rather than trying to reconstruct years of history from memory the way I had to do for this case. Future documentation (if I ever need it again, or just for my own career tracking) will be dramatically easier because I built this habit during this process. If you're in the middle of the often-tedious archaeology of reconstructing your own career history for this case: consider that the discipline you're building might be worth keeping going forward, not just something to endure once and abandon once your case is filed.