Hi g-Funk, I got my FAA A & P recently, so hope the info is recent and helpful:
I went to American Airman in Long Island, New York. The guys there are very very switched on, they will guide you all along, I would recommend them highly.
Plan around 10 days for everything.
You said you are just going to get your B1, so I assume you have the required experience already??? Be very careful about the FAA requirements!!! Have you got any experience on N-registered aircraft or do you work on N-reg aircraft?
Be prepared for all the questions you will be asked from the FAA inspector before giving you the Authorisation to appear for written exams.
There is a whole process which in a sequence goes as:
1) Get an experience letter from your company mentioning all the aircraft and the type of experience you have, ( theres lot of info on the net about the acceptable format of experience letters for FAA),
2) Take your experience letter to CAA,UK, and get an authentication Letter from them, basically, endorsing your experience.( they charge a fee for it)
3) select a school in USA and enrol yourself, select the dates and ask them to arrange for the visit to FAA office for getting permission to write the exams.
4) I ordered the exam prep books long before I went, it actually helps if you want to save yourself time to prepare. I knocked everything out in 5 days.
Any other info needed, feel free to pm me and I will try and help,
Good Luck mate!!!