When people find out that I'm an Au Pair they almost always ask me how I got into it. Here's how I did it.
Who can Au Pair?
Anyone between the ages of 18-26 who can speak English, has graduated high school and has previous experience working with children proven through references. This job requires a lot of work with children so above everything else you must love working with children.
Choosing an agency:
To come to America as an Au Pair you MUST go through an agency. If you want to go to Europe its an option but not mandated. Au Pair World links potential Au Pairs with families in Europe. There are 15 agencies in America to choose from. They are all pretty similar with some slight differences. The rules that these agencies enforce are all similar because they were created by the US government. The two big ones are Au Pair In America and Cultural Care Au Pair. I chose to actually go with a smaller one called Go Au Pair because I wanted to have more say in what state I was placed in. Go Au Pair is so small that I needed to use a partner company in Australia called JCR Au Pairs and Nannies.
The application:
I paid $200 to apply to the agency. Not all agencies have this $200 sign up fee but they normally include it in their other fees anyway. When I received the application in the post it was very overwhelming. There is a lot of paper work to fill out and a lot of references to collect to prove you have worked with children. You need to have a full medical and immunization check as well as get a national police clearance from the post office. Just a warning, you will probably have to pay for your medical check as it isn't covered by Medicare. As a part of my application I created a video. It was optional through Go Au Pair but is mandated by others. Here is a link to that.
Another part of going through Go Au Pair meant that I needed to watch A LOT of working with children training DVDs and complete an open book test. Other agencies fly the Au Pairs to New York for a weekend to complete this training.
Picking the family:
I had no idea how many letters from families I was about to receive and how hard it was going to be to turn them down. I had families from all over the USA email me asking me to be their Au Pair. Turning down people just because of where they live made some people mad and some people just said 'keep us in mind if you can find somewhere in SLC'. Eventually I I found the email address the SLC part of Go Au Pair and asked them to hand my application out to potential families in Utah. A few days later I received an email from the Simpson family.
Matching with a family:
I replied to the email from the Simpson family saying I was interested. I phoned David a few days later but found out that he wanted me there ASAP and I wasn't ready to leave Australia yet. After some negotiation I finally decided that it was too good of an opportunity to pass. I emailed JCR Au Pairs and formally accepted their offer.
Once you have paired with a family you must pay the $1000 in fees. This gets you return flights, basic medical insurance and to be part of the program.
Visa application:
Once a match has been made and a date has been selected the agency sent me the Visa application and the DS-2109 form that lets you apply for the visa. The hardest part about this process was getting the visa photo right. It's not the same as an Australian passport photo! There is a Kodak shop near the U.S. consulate in Perth that takes the photos correctly. You need to go to the consulate to have a meeting to get your visa approved. Bring everything you need! You won't be able to take your phone or any electronics into the waiting room so bring a book if you feel you will need it. I had a 8:30am appointment do I didn't have to wait too long.
Health insurance:
You receive basic health insurance with your agency. They will give you the option to pay to upgrade it. I STRONGLY recommend upgrading because the USAs public health system sucks! Upgrade to what ever you can afford.
Flights:
As I walked out of my interview I emailed the agency and told them to book my flights. They asked if I had any special requests but they didn't follow them anyway. I ended up called the airline once I received my ticket and requested the special meal that way instead of getting the agency to do it.
Make sure you have all your families details with you as you will need them to fill out a customs form on the flight
And that's it. I got picked up at the airport by my host family. I suggest you study their pictures so you know who you are looking for and exchange some money before you leave in case anything goes wrong on the other end.
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