Spouse Visa Help Needed

Hi! I've got a couple questions for anyone willing to advise me. Basically, my UK citizen husband and I(I'm a US citizen) are here in the US at the present, preparing to travel to the LA consulate in just over a week and a half to get our spouse visa. This is the best of what we could get together, as far as documents go: Our marriage certificate, my passport, his passport, my birth certificate, his birth certificate, two passport-sized photos of myself, his brother is allowing us to live with him until we can find a place of our own, so we've also got a letter from him saying he's fully aware of our intent to reside there and is perfectly alright with it.........however, my husband's brother just recently bought the house from my mother-in-law, so all we'll have as proof that he owns it would be letters to both my brother in law and mother in law  from their solicitor in relation to the sale and purchase of the house. As for the financial aspect of things, my husband is not working at present, but has only been out of work for a short amount of time, so all we'll have is 6 months of my husband's bank statements(he'll have about 5,000 pounds in his account as well). We had planned to have his mother write a letter of support, but for some reason or another, whenever she went to her bank to do so(and have a notary sign it)they wouldn't ok it, saying she didn't have anough money, and that they wouldn't "commit" to it(which made little sense to me, seeing as she just sold her home.lol). We'll also have his CV, my CV, photos of us at our wedding and such, along with letters, cards, e.t.c.. We'll have the application form, the appointment confirmation, and the visa fee. Any thoughts as to how good a case this will make? This is  pretty much the best we can do, so I am certainly hoping (and praying like mad) that this will cover us. I would really appreciate anyone's advice. Thank you!! 

What type of work do intend to do in the UK? 

And hopefully you are not moving to an area of high unemployment.

Jim

Hi, I was very worried about getting our spousal visa due to our curcumstances, we went in person to the NY office.

My only income at the time was full social benefits for my son and myself. My husband had not worked for 6 months due to an accident, though we were not asked why he hadn't worked for so long. We only had 2500 in savings. What we did to make our case look a bit better was to print out some example jobs that my husband would be applying for at www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk and put these with his CV and his previous job refs. Along with this i had a hand written letter from my mother saying she would financially help us until we were on our feet, to support this we took a couple of her bank statements, this didn't require the bank to agree to anything. (my mum is defiantly not well off)
On top of this there were issues with our housing. I was in a homeless housing scheme and they would not give permission for my husband to live with me in advance. I took my tenancy agreement to NY to show that i lived in a flat that was big enough to accomadate my husband (even though it clearly stated that only my son and myself were allowed to live there) and took a back up letter from my mother saying that we could stay there if there were any problems once my husband had arrived in the UK, as it turned out i didn't need the housing letter from my mother.
The whole thing turned out to be a breeze, they spent about 3 minutes looking at the form and papers, questioned nothing and didn't even want to see all the letters and cards etc lol. Infact the longest part of the whole process was waiting to pay.
I don't have any answers but hope this helps you feel a bit better about things.

Just a thought, but could you get a letter of support from your mother in law and back that up with papers from the sale of her house showing that she does have some money?

Good luck and all the best
Jules

Along with this i had a hand written letter from my mother saying she would financially help us until we were on our feet, to support this we took a couple of her bank statements, this didn't require the bank to agree to anything.

Yes, I wouldn't worry about whether the letter of support from your mum-in-law is notarised or not.  My husband and I had his mother write a letter of support and give us a few bank statments (including what she had in savings), and that was sufficent.  As for us, our financial situation wasn't "rosy", and I was scared about our application, as well.  I had no job, no bank account, no money, no savings.  My husband had a job - not a high-paying one, mind you - and a bank account, but no savings.  I was, needless to say, terrified that I wouldn't get the visa.  However, just three days after sending off my application to the NY consulate, I received all our papers back, including my passport with visa attached!

As a side note...... we took great comfort in this post by garry 

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=10630.msg108308#msg108308

Thank you so much for your replies. As for the question regarding work, I am at the present dealing with some serious health issues regarding my legs(waiting on a couple of knee replacements, and am not able to walk easily, normally not at all), but plan to apply for private health insurance once I am over, and get my knee replacements done. Now, as soon as that's taken care of and I am back on my feet, I intend to begin my search for work promptly. My husband and I are moving back to Ripponden, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, and from what I hear I shouldn't have too much trouble finding some kind of work. I mainly have experience working in restaurants, but I will see what I can find, and do my best to find it. I really appreciate hearing from a couple people who've been in my shoes, it really is a little unnerving wondering whether or not we've got a good enough case for this spouse visa! lol From what my husband says, his mother may have mailed her letter of support anyway, though she wasn't able to have it notarised. We'll go ahead and combine that with the papers detailing the sale of the house, and hope for the very best. He'll also check and see if he can get some copies of applications for jobs, showing he's been looking for work. Anyway, thank you so much for your help!!! 

Some people include their CV with their application, proving that they are employable.  I didn't have an up-to-date CV at the time I did my app, so I simply stated in my letter of intent that I was going to look for work when I came over.  Must have been good enough. 

Keep your chin up.  I know how difficult it is to not worry, but try not to.

~hugs~