Joanne28

Hi. I just moved to Plano, Texas in March of 2009, and was wondering if anyone knows of any Plano-based British expat meet up groups. If not, are there any other Brits in the area...?

rebs

Hi - welcome to BE!

I'm in Plano - moved here last July from Bournemouth with my husband and 11 year old son. How are you finding things since the move?

There is a Dallas based British expats group on meetup.com - I joined a while ago but have not been to any of the meetups yet. Also, just today I had an email to say a guy had started up a Plano British expats group on meetup.

Rebecca

Joanne28

Hey, thanks for the meetup.com info. I just joined the Plano group.

As I'm sure you know, Texas is quite different to the UK, but things are going okay, so far. However, its going to take a long time to get used to all the driving... And that's in addition to the added stress of having to sit a US test at some point.

How have you found Plano? Do you have any recommendations for someone new to the area?

Joanne

david-p

I moved to Texas in 2006 and am living east of Denton.

David

jetbedlam

I'm not there yet, but hopefully later this year I'll be in Dallas...melting...

rebs

Lol! We arrived last year on 5th July, just at the start of a run of 100F+ weather. Quite an introduction!

When are you planning to arrive?

rebs

Don't fret about the driving test - it really is extremely easy. I've never been a particularly confident driver, but it was a breeze. Just read the booklet beforehand as you're bound to get questions on the fines for drink driving etc.

Someone suggested to us to go to McKinney to take the test rather than Plano as the DPS office is a much quieter one. That's what we did.

jetbedlam

We're still waiting to hear about the fiance visa at the moment, but the (vague) plan is to get married sometime Sept-Nov all being well with the visa of course.

Even if I get the visa earlier we don't want to get married earlier than Sept as we're doing it outside and the Scottish contingent might die!! So, basically, the earliest I'd be there is probably Aug, which is throwing myself right in there!!!

rebs

Yes - having the wedding in the height of summer could well be considered cruel & unnatural punishment for your Scottish visitors!

Where abouts in Scotland are you? I lived in the North East of Scotland when I was in my teens / early twenties.

jetbedlam

I live in Edinburgh now but I'm from Forres originally (well, I went to school there but my folks kinda live between towns in the country so I guess I'm almost Highland!)

lisa67

Hi and welcome to BE. we're not in Plano, but just west of Fort Worth so not too far away in the grand scheme of things...hope you're having fun !

Meryl

fingers crossed my H1B is approved, if it is I'll be moving to north Dallas later in the year

...quite nervous about the driving tho, I've driven on the Dallas before and was a bit traumatised after it- no one told me you are allowed to make a right turn when the light is at red!!! needless to say the locals soon put me right

dbj1000

We've been in Plano for 6 years now. Arrived on an H1-B back in 2003, and now we're here for good!

The place is crawling with Brits, but I'm not aware of any expat "groups" as such. We have met most of our Brit friends by just bumping into them at school, childrens' activities, the grocery store etc...

Hell, even the Hispanic lady out my company canteen's checkout said to me yesterday "There's 4 people in the building now who speak funny like you!"

rebs

You're dead right about plenty of Brits around - one of our neighbours who had children at the same school as my son is British. We generally find that as soon as we start talking to each other when we are out, people strike up conversations with us - we actually bumped into a guy the other day who had worked with my brother in law in the UK!

jannycrest

I may not be British but I live in Texas. Welcome in the Lone Star State, and enjoy the summer heat.