Official, legitimate agencies for Au Pairs in the USA

Although many readers arrive at this forum because they have been victimized by an au pair scam, and others because they are suspicious of a website or a potential employer, everyone should know that for the U.S.A. at least, there are a number of completely legitimate agencies that match au pair candidates with host families under very reasonable terms, including obtaining an official USA entry visa for the au pair. Our family has used several of them.

Please refer to

http://j1visa.state.gov/programs/au-pair/

for a description of the official program and the current list of accredited agencies. Each one specializes in bringing in au pairs from particular countries, so you might have to look a while to find an agency that recruits from your country. On the other hand, you should be very careful with any agency not on that list, and I would warn you away from any unofficial agency in any case. Only the listed agencies can get you a valid USA entry visa. Please PM me with any further questions, and good luck!

Jack

Further to Jack's advice above, please note that some scammers pretend to represent one of the US Government's designated sponsor agencies.

Therefore, if you are looking for an au pair position in the USA, please contact a designated sponsor agency through the contact details on their website only. You will find a list of the sponsor agencies here:

http://j1visa.state.gov/participants/ho ... =&x=14&y=8

You can visit their websites by clicking on the agency name in the left hand column. Some scammers will direct you to fake websites, or give you a fake agency email address; therefore, always make sure that you are visiting the genuine website, and using the genuine agency's real email address.

An individual family in the USA is not permitted to directly engage a person as an au pair - the family and au pair must go through one of the designated sponsor agencies. The agency will then 'match' a family and an au pair.

Some International Au Pair Association agencies work together with US designated sponsor agencies. You can find a list of International Au Pair Association agencies here:

http://www.iapa.org/?page_id=33

To clarify: although an agency may assist you with applying for your visa, no agency can obtain a visa for you. You will always need to apply for a visa yourself, at the US Embassy or Consulate in your own country.