Trying so hard to get it right!

Here I go again with questions!  My UK fiance has a British passport, but he prefers not to send it to me, afraid it will get lost in the post.  Will a copy, signed by a solicitor, be acceptable?  He also has his long form birth certificate he is willing to send.  Also, does he need to get a copy of his council lease and a letter from council saying it is alright for me to live there with him?  I understand that the benefits will change for him once I am with him.   I have read that the Bristish Consulate prefers online applications.  I can do that, as I do have a credit card, but if I choose to do it by mail, with all my documents, will it be accepted?  Will it take longer?  If I do it by mail, should it be Fed-Ex'd?  If I do it online, do I Fed Ex the documents?   His parents are understandably reluctant to give us their bank statements.  Can they send them to the consulate in Chicago (my area consulate), and will they be returned to them directly?  Would it also help if I got a letter and statements from my brother who lives in California?  So many questions, but I am soooooooo nervous, and I want to do it right, as I really don't want to take a chance on being denied.  We haven't much money, and the fee for the visa and ticket will take most of my savings.  Oh, and also, the fee is $494, and the mailing fee is $12.  Do I pay that online at the same time, or send separate money orders, or what???   Thank you!

If he doesn't want to send his passport then he needs to get a certified copy of his passport.  I dont think a copy signed by a solicitor is sufficent enough. My MIL lives in a council and we are staying here temporarily,all you need to do is who evers name the house is under have them write a letter stating you will be stating there (if it is under his name then a get a letter from him) and his lease,my MIL didnt have her actual lease so she went to the council and got a photocopy of the lease with council stamps on it and a letter from them stating she is the tenant and for how long. The council doesnt need to give permission for you to stay there,on the lease it clearly says the owner has the right to who is living there, just as long as its not over crowded (overcrowded in their terms is 2 or more people of the opposite sex sharing a room that is not married) If you do your application by mail then yes they will accept it but you need to fill out your application online first and at the end of the application you have to choose whether to send it in or do it in person, yes it will take longer, right now its about 5 business days, if you do it in person you will most likely get it the same day. I'd recommend fedex just so you can track it. I personally wouldnt recommend them sending their bank statements seperatly,it might get crossed somewhere but like someone in here mentioned, they can put it in an envelope and mark "Only to be opened by Chicago Consulate" on it and seal it up,that might make them feel more comfertable. But I'd recommend sending your fiances bank statements instead of his parents. If you are making your payment online for your visa then the $12 fee will be included when you make your payment.

A document can only be certified by a solicitor or commissioner for oaths.  He will need to copy every page, take the copy and the original to a solicitor or CFO and have each page certified. 

Even the blank pages have to be photocopied!
And didnt someone once post on this board that the cost for certifying it is something like £12 per page?

If i were your boyfriend, i would just send the passport!

What we did was get a verifyed copy of my fiance's visa and his mom's visa(she was my co sponcer). We photocopied the page with the photo and had it signed by a solicitor. They accepted that. And with the lease, we just photo copied that. It didn't have my name anywhere on it, they just need to know that he had a place to stay, where I would be able to stay. I think they'd assume that it wouldnt have your name on it, since you arent a citizen yet. And his mother didnt give me any bank statements, she got a letter from her employer stating what her yearly wages were. His parents may be more willing to do that as well, since it doesnt show what they're spending thier money on. It also took me a week and a half to get my visa in the mail, not as long as I thought it would. And *wow* You don't have to pay as much as I did, my fee was $560!