The Au Pair Program – How to start.

Go Au Pair is a reliable and cost-effective program for live-in child care needs. The family can register online for free and interview as many candidates as the family likes, with no obligation! We have over 300 available au pairs, with several in-country au pairs. Also, new Host Families are eligible for up to $1,000.00 in discounts!

To get started, please review  the U.S. Department of State requirements.

• Be willing to comply with U.S. Department of State regulations
• Be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents fluent in spoken English
• Provide the au pair with a private bedroom and 3 meals a day for the au pair
• Limit child care to a maximum of 45 hours per week if participating in the standard au pair; 30 hours per week for the EduCare program.
• Not exceed 10 hours per day or extend over more than five and a half days.
• Have adequate financial resources to undertake hosting obligations
• Pay a weekly minimum stipend based on the program option selected ($195.75 for standard Au Pairs and $146.81 for EduCare Au Pairs are the minimum amounts required by the Department of State. Families and Au Pairs are free to agree upon any amount higher than this minimum.)
• Help an Au Pair to enroll in and attend an accredited post-secondary institution to fulfill here educational requirement.
• Pay up to $500 toward the cost of the au pair’s required academic course work;
• Provide a minimum of two weeks paid vacation for each 12 months.

For more information please read THE AU PAIR EXCHANGE PROGRAM BROCHURE. After the family reviews the host family qualifications,  the family can register and apply online. Once the family has registered and completed the online application,  Go Au Pair will open the personal portal and the family will get the access to our advance Host Family Community, where the family can view hundreds of au pair profiles.

All Au Pairs are screened, personally interviewed and meet regulatory requirements to qualify for the J1 visa Au Pair program. These regulations include background checks, minimum High School education, minimum hours of childcare experience, verified childcare references and more. All Au Pairs are required to have a minimum number of years of childcare experience.

In addition, Go Au Pair is pleased to welcome new Host Families hosting an out-of-country Au Pair in the Philadelphia and Bucks County area with a “Locals Only” Discount. Those who match with an Au Pair from Go Au Pair within 90 days of applying will be eligible to receive $750 off program fees and pay no application fee!

Welcoming new Au Pair from S. Africa Jessica

Jessica recently joined a new host family in Newtown, Bucks County, PA. She made a lot of friends on facebook with the Au Pairs from  Philadelphia cluster.  Jessica has two buddies, Kathy from Ecuador and Jennifer from South Africa. Jennifer already met Jessica and interviewed her. Enjoy the interview with Jessica! Thank you, Jennifer, for the interview!

I would just like to welcome our new Au Pair Jessica from Cape Town to Bucks County. I have had the privilege of meeting up with Jessica already and have only good things to say about her! She is a very warm, caring and fun-loving individual with a great spirit. She has an open heart and an open mind for the adventure that lies ahead of her and I believe that although this process is not always easy, she has the strength and determination to give it her all. I wish her nothing but the best for her year.

What are your hobbies and interests? I love anything outdoors. I love hiking, fitness, running and all sorts of outdoor activities. I also love photography and anything to do with nature. Landscape photography and wildlife photography and anything creative. I also love shopping and traveling.

What was the best event/happening during last month? I have only been here for a week but the most exciting thing I’ve done so far has to be taking the train (for the first time by myself) into Philadelphia and meeting up with another Au Pair.

What three adjectives best describe you? Organized, creative and sporty.

What place would you like to visit? Definitely New York and Niagara Falls, Washington DC, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles.

What is your favorite way to spend a Saturday? Sleeping in, going for a nice jog or hike, eating a yummy breakfast and spending the afternoon with friends and family.

What was the best complement you have ever received? A few people have told me that I am extremely hardworking and that they admire my strength and ability to handle tough situations.

What are two things that you consider yourself to be very good at? I am very good at organizing things and I am good at most sports. Sport usually comes very naturally to me and I have played quite a lot of different sports in my life.

Welcome, Jessica!  Please, join our global cluster! Eight Au Pairs from your native country South Africa and also our international team- Chinese Au Pairs, Colombian Au Pairs,  Ecuadorian Au Pairs,  Mexican Au Pairs, Ukrainian Au Pairs and Au Pairs from other countries are looking forward to meeting you!

Chinese Au Pair volunteered in America

Ophelia’s Diary.

One of the best memory for my first Au Pair year is volunteering! Even though I just been here less than one year, I already volunteered four times. As I am leaving to my new host family soon, I would like to share all my volunteering experience with you. Recently our Local Area Representative(LAR) Polina helped us find the chance to volunteer for Newtown Welcome Day. We helped distribute promotional items. By the end of the event, you can see almost everyone had green bags on their backs! We worked really hard for it. Our Au Pair group volunteered for Philadelphia Marathon and Flower Show Before. Every event is unique. For example, we helped give out snacks during Marathon, we worked together as a team not just with Au Pairs but with thousands of Volunteers from other places. It gave us a chance to make friends with other volunteers too. Also, because it was free snacks, almost everyone took them happily. But during Newtown Welcome Day what we gave out were promotional items, some people did refuse to take it. So in this way, I will say I like Marathon better. Philadelphia Flower Show was even more unique! We helped people did flower hats in the Make and Take room. I love volunteering for the Flower Show so much, because I helped people design different kinds of hats also I made a cute flower hat for myself! Besides volunteering together with other Au Pairs from Go Au Pair, I taught English in Chinese Gospel Church as a volunteer. All my students were the elderly. As they are very old they don’t have very good memories, but they did work really hard on English. Their spirit moved me so much, it’s my honor to help them with English. Hopefully, I can still find a lot volunteering opportunities in Las Vegas. Volunteering is one of the best parts of my Au Pair life!

Read more stories from Ophelia’s Diary.

Why I love Las Vegas?

Ophelia’s Diary.

As I told all my friends and family that I found a new host family with Go Au Pair in Las Vegas. Some people are happy for me, some people start worrying about me.

In the eyes of some people, Las Vegas is a “Sin City”, it’s built on sex and gambling. I have been there two times, that’s not the impression Las Vegas gave me at all.

It is a peaceful place and  has very pretty buildings. You can see a lot awesome free shows there. Las Vegas Strips is for tourists, the residents don’t live there. The residents usually live a half hour away from the strips.

I love Las Vegas a lot because I have a wonderful new host family there, and  also Jon. Some of my Au Pair friends are there. Las Vegas won’t make me lose my faith, I will just have a happier Au Pair year with Go Au Pair.

Read more stories form Ophelia’s Diary.

New Life — Las Vegas

Ophelia’s Diary.

Today I just got my flight ticket to my new host family from Go Au Pair. Only one and a half months left, then I will flight to Las Vegas! I am so excited about this.

My new host family is very lovely. They have three wonderful children. All of them are super cute.

Most of the time I will take care of the angel baby and the cute little toddler girl.

Next week I am going to visit Las Vegas again. I will go to visit my new host family, meet the lovely host children in person. Maybe going to visit an Au Pair who lives there too. She is a Chinese Au Pair from Go Au Pair. We have been talked for quite a while. Now we are very good friends.

So glad I already have some good friends  in Las Vegas before I move there. For sure my second Au Pair year will be even more wonderful!

Read more stories from Ophelia’s Diary.

Au Pair extension time is coming!

Ophelia’s Diary.

Everything in Philadelphia is great for me. I love being an Au Pair in America with Go Au Pair. I had such a wonderful year here.

But now is the time for me to prepare to move to a new place as my one year contract with my current host family will end in July.

It’s really easy to extend your Au Pair year with Go Au Pair. You can extend it for free, all you need to do is filling out and extension form, updating your profile letter and photos.

My Au Pair experience helped me a lot for my extension. A lot families contacted me in a very short time. They valued my Au Pair experience in Philadelphia a lot. Eventually, I matched with a wonderful host family in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is a very special place for me. I had been there twice, there were a lot stories happened in Las Vegas. I will share all of them with you little by little. Also as I had been talked with more than ten host families totally, I would love to share my matching process with you too.

( Come back read about Ophelia’s Las Vegas trip and matching process with her new host family soon! )

Read more stories from Ophelia’s Diary.