Spousal Visa App: UK fiance made redundant

Here's the situation:

Fiance (UK) and I (US) have been together for 7 years.
Getting married in the US on March 21, 2009.
Plan on applying for spousal visa upon returning from honeymoon.
Already started collecting appropriate documentation.
But my fiance was just made redundant (laid off) this last week.

Questions:
1.  Should I still use my fiance as my sponsor or use his parents instead? (We'll be staying with them till we find our own place)
2.  Fiance's worried about what to say to IO because:
     - scared to mention he's getting married to US Citizen
     - scared to mention leaving the country for a week & with whom (his new wife for honeymoon)
     - scared to explain just visiting me here (US) in November 2008
     - does not have a job to prove reason to return to UK
     - the rest of the family is traveling with him (scared someone will "slip" about wedding?)

Any expert advice?  Reading this forum's posts have answered a multitude of previous questions I've had...Thank you in advance!

1. Your fiance/husband is the only one who can sponsor you - third party sponsorship is no longer allowed.  That said, if your fiance's parents are willing to give you a monetary engagement or wedding gift (and are willing to write a letter stating that this money is a gift and is non-repayable), then you can use this money to demonstrate that you meet the financial requirements.

2.  It is perfectly legal for your fiance to travel to the US and marry you whilst on the visa waiver program.  He should be honest with the IO when he arrives, and, if asked, state that he is there to marry you and then return to the UK, where you will be joining him when your spousal visa has been issued.

I definitely don't have expert advice I'm afraid But I would just tell your fiance to be honest with the IO if asked, it's not illegal to marry a US citizen as long as no attempt is made on the part of the Brit to stay or try to apply for some form of citizenship while in the US. It's better to be honest then caught up in a lie--I could see trying to lie and say that he's on holiday with his family, but that's not a good idea at all. I don't think they'll question his previous visit unless they think he overstayed or anything, plenty of Brits come to visit the US every year so it's not unheard of

My husband told the IO in Houston that he was here for his third Christmas holiday in a row and would be getting married during this visit. Evidently it wasn't a problem.

Congrats, BTW!

Thanks for the input!  One question:

to demonstrate that you meet the financial requirements.

Does anyone know what the financial requirement is?  How much money in savings are we talking about to not have to use public funds?

Congrats, BTW!

Thank you!

For a fiance visa, I believe the magic number was 94 GBP/week after paying bills but before buying food and other things needed on a daily/weekly basis. For a spousal visa I'm not sure what that number is, if there even is one, since on a spousal visa both parties can work and contribute to the household (as where on a fiance visa you couldn't work, so it'd be strictly on the Brit to pay for everything).

And the 94 GBP might have changed and I'm not aware, I believe that was the number used in 2008, and I've seen it mentioned before in these threads. Prolly someone with an actual spousal visa can give a better idea of that though (I haven't gotten mine yet, but I'm in the process of putting everything together ).

The £94 a week (essentially what someone would get from the JSA) applies to anyone coming in on a family based visa, fiancée or spouse.  And it is after all fixed outgoings like rent, utilities, debt repayment, etc.

Also, it isn't entirely a magic number.  There is a lot of discretion when it comes to family visas, and in a lot of cases they have to evaluate the situation when the immigrant arrives in the country and can consider things like job opportunties, potential of the immigrant to earn money, etc when looking at the situation.

The £94 a week (essentially what someone would get from the JSA) applies to anyone coming in on a family based visa, fiancée or spouse.  And it is after all fixed outgoings like rent, utilities, debt repayment, etc.

Also, it isn't entirely a magic number.  There is a lot of discretion when it comes to family visas, and in a lot of cases they have to evaluate the situation when the immigrant arrives in the country and can consider things like job opportunties, potential of the immigrant to earn money, etc when looking at the situation.

Thanks for clarifying that for me, I wasn't entirely sure if it applied to both types of visas And yeah, I think it's a somewhat flexible number that they use as a guideline when focusing on things like you mentioned, I just mentioned it as a magic number more in the sense that it's the number that is stuck in my head