It could be a good time to settle in, weather should be fairly good and the shops will have lots and lots of after Christmas sales going on. Leaving an Oz summer will not be too bad coming to Houston, winters here are usually very mild...although occasionally it goes crazy and snows for a day

I grew up in Houston out 290 a ways. 290 can be a nightmare, as others said. My parents avoid the worst traffic by leaving really early (5:30 AM) or late (10 or 10:30 AM). The Woodlands are very nice and a great place for a family, maybe worth a long commute. I'm not very familiar with Pearland or Friendswood and those southside cities, but my impression is that they're very nice (wealthy) suburban areas.

For most people, driving in rush hour isn't a choice, it's just part of the Houston lifestyle. So don't be too dismayed your first time sitting in standstill traffic because there's a stalled car in the left lane And don't let proximity to your work be the only factor in determining where you live.

Keep in mind that there are nice places to live inside the city as well. If I were to move back, I'd like in the River Oaks area. And the area around Rice University is the most beautiful part of Houston, if you can afford it, and near almost everything (museums, the zoo, parks, the medical center, excellent shopping, and not far from downtown).

As for rugby and drama clubs, I'm certain they exist but I don't know about any personally.

Thanks for all the great info. My husband will work in Greenspoint.

I think that's to the North near the airport. Areas near there are Spring, Humble and the woodlands. The woodlands is ment to be beautiful but I don't know much about the other areas. HAR.com is a good place to start as it has all the property listings for Houston. It also tends to mention if the property is near somewhere for the international school bus pickup. The woodlands also has it's own website, thewoodlands.com.
Can't be much help otherwise that didn't look at those areas as the commute would have been too long for us.
Good luck with the move

Have a look at Kingwood as well - it is to the East of Greenspoint.

Got a friend who used to work in the Woodlands, but lived in the Heights - reckoned the commute was great as he was always going against the traffic. Your husbands would be about half of what my friends was, and not that far to the British School either. Maybe worth considering that area - a bit different to the 'normal' family areas..

I was reading thru this thread and had a nagging feeling that something was wrong - couldn't put my finger on it, something was just...missing.... and then it hit me! We've got to about Post 16 or 17 on a thread about moving to Houston and none of the "don't do it, its a cr@phole" brigade have shown up yet!. Whats up with them? All asleep? Having an off day? Or feeling outnumbered now we're shipping in the reinforcements? Bob, the little tinker boy, got dangerously close with his "check out the previous threads" comment, but we'll let that one slide.....;-)

Tonrob, you're needed

Greenspoint is basically Beltway 8 and I-45. It gives you good options of where to live whilst the commute for your husband to work would still be ok. The woodlands isn't a bad commute from there, the Heights is also a good option. Both nice areas to live. Depending on budget, River Oaks and by Memorial Park are also good areas.

I agree with this. If you live anywhere on the north side of town, the commute won't be too bad. The Woodlands, Spring, Heights, River Oaks, all good. You could go east to Humble or west to the Jersey Village area (my hood) if you wanted. I wouldn't go as far as Kingwood though, that's a ways outside of the beltway loop.

One tip: stay away from Greenspoint (aka Gunspoint) Mall. If it even still exists, I haven't been over there in a while.

Look - I don't know where everyone gets the idea that I think that Houston is a soulless dump where you wouldn't even send your mother-in-law. Houston is officially very nice - as documented here.

OMG we are only one ahead in the poll - time to sign hubby up for an account for an extra vote

That ship's long sailed.

Lol... as soon as I saw people talking about Greenspoint I wondered who would mention Gunpoint Mall... (I lived in Houston for a while)

Hi,

I am in the UK - does anyone know if their company is hiring?

My partner and I sold our house this summer and have been saving hard as we want to move to the USA. We are looking for work and need an employer that would be willing to do the visa thing. I have a few contacts which I'm delving into now, but the more I can find the better.

We have money to pay for our own visa/expenses and we are not looking for a Expat package, simply employment.

If anyone knows if their company is hiring can you let me know please.

The company I'm with are not based in the USA so no hope of a transfer.

Please email if you know of anything; <snip>

Thank you,

Em

Hi Em,

Welcome to BE. I hate to burst your bubble but I wonder if you know that it is extremly hard to migrate to the US. They do not have a points based system like Australia, for example. I would suggest you take a read of this page and see if any of it relates to you and take a read through the forum and read other peoples experiences of moving to the US.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy being part of our community. Please don't hesitate to give myself, or the moderators or concierge a shout if you have any site usability questions. The moderators for the USA Imm forums are Rete, Meauxna and Noorah101 and for the USA lifestyle forums the mods are Bob and Ms Elui. We've also got a really great Concierge Kaffy Mintcake.

Sue

PS I've also taken the liberty of removing the email address from your post, it's not wise to post your details like that on a public forum, as you may open yourself up to spam from spam bots.