You Are The One Who Wants To Be An Au pair In The US?

An Au pair is foreign-national domestic assistant working for, and living as part of, a host family. Typically, Au pairs are young women who take on a share of the family's responsibility for child care, and receive a small monetary allowance for personal use.[1]

This is the formal definition of an Au pair. The most important part of creating this blog is to share the real life experiences about being an Au pair in US. While you can learn all the rules you will see how the real Au pair experienced this life.

You need to follow these below steps to become an Au pair in the US.

1. Au pair Qualifications:

To become an Au pair;

* You need to be between 18 and 26 years of age,

* Experience caring for children,

* Speak English,

* Be a high school graduate, among other qualifications.

* Have no criminal record

* Be in good health

and as an Au pair;

* You will spend 12 months [2] living with an American family,

* Caring for their children up to 45 hours [3] per week,

* In your free time, you can meet new friends and experience life in the US.

2. Finding the right way to apply the program:

There are Au pair agencies in the US. And they have representative agencies in your country. My suggestion is to look on the internet, read the blogs, and comments about the agencies. This is the great way to choose your future Au pair agency. (I will post a US Au pair agency contact list in y next blog.)

3. Au pair Application

Third, you need to prepare a detailed written Au pair application with the support of your local Au pair representative which is in your country. The application includes:

* An essay on why you want to be an Au pair

* Photographs of yourself

* A doctor's report from a recent medical check-up

* A police background check

* At least two childcare references and one personal reference

You can have a personal interview with your local Au pair representative in English.

How do Au pair agencies work?

You apply the Au pair agency which is in your country. They checked your qualifications if you are ok to become an Au pair they send your application to the Au pair agency which is in the US and work with your country's Au pair agency. If the US Au pair agency approves your application, you will be in their agency matching list in a short time to be matched with a host family who is looking for an Au pair and is in their agency matching list.

So, the agencies are both kind of middleman who works between Au pairs and the host families. They help the both side to be matched.

What is host family?

You live with them and you take care of their kids. They sponsored you to be able to come to the US. Generally, they are responsible your weekly payment and your meal. The family who wants to have an Au pair applies the US Au pair agency. And they have kind of same process to become a host family. The Au pair agency screens them. If they are ok to become a host family, the US Au pair agency puts them into their agency matching list.

In the agencies, mostly the possible Au pair candidates do not have an access to contact with the host family before the family contacts with the candidates. First off all the host family needs to contact with the Au pair candidate. Then the candidate can contact with that family. Basically, the Au pair do not have luxury choice to choose the host family, before the host family chooses the possible candidate.

The process basically works like this. If you have more questions pls feel free to contact with me.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_pair
[2] You can extend your program one more year without getting new visa. So you can stay as an Au pair max 2 years in the US.
[3] mostly 5 days in a week and half of one weekend day. So you have one and a half day off in a week.