Cultural Care Au Pair

I have had 4 au pairs with Cultural Care Au Pair, and I have little kids - under the age of 5 so it isn't easy finding good childcare. My au pairs have each had different strengths - but all were loving and careful with my children. One was a teacher and she loved to do artwork with my kids. It wasn't always neat...but my kids had a great year with her. yes, au pairs make mistakes, but so did my nanny, and so do I ! With good direction, each of my au pairs has been a success, and my children have loved them. I will have Cultural Care Au Pairs for a long time from now! My LCC and the main office has been helpful. M.K

We've been hosting au pairs with Cultural Care for almost 6 years and can really say that this was the best possible decision for our family. Hosting an au pair has given our family a chance to truly know our childcare provider and each au pair that we have hosted has become part of our family. Each au pair is different and has her own personality and as host parents, we've had to manage each person differently. Over the years, we've developed our own set of rules and guidelines that we review with our au pair in the beginning and then continue to reinforce over the year. We feel strongly that you need to have very specific rules and tasks for the au pair, but also compassion because this is usually their first time away from home and in many ways their first full-time job. I can't imagine what it would be like to have to go thousands of miles away from home and be expected to work in an environment that is so different from my own and have responsibilty for someone else's children and then on top of that know all the "unwritten, unspoken" rules - like what are the best snacks for the kids, how to fold the children's laundry, etc.

In terms of our choice to use Cultural Care, we feel really great about that. We really like that the match we are reviewing is just for us and we are not competing with other families. I also like that I don't have to spend hours on the internet culling through the available pool - as a workign mom, I just don't have the extra time. Whenever we've had issues or questions, our local coordinator has been terrific and when we've needed the office staff, they've been great too.

I honestly can't imagine us using any other type of childcare that is so affordable or able to provide this amount of flexibility.

I have had a completely different experience than many of the people who have posted on this site. Our family has hosted two amazing au pairs who have truly become members of our family. My children cherish both of these young women and are looking forward to welcoming our third au pair next month. Our first au pair has been back once to visit and plans another visit to us in a few months.Families have to understand what this program is. It is not a nanny agency but a cultural exchange program that facilitates that also provides childcare. It sometimes takes the au pairs a few weeks to get used to driving our large American cars and the rules of our roads. However, both of my au pairs have been competent drivers and have safely transported my school aged children to their activities, school, friend's houses, etc. We have gotten to eat wonderful food from our au pair's home countries and learned about their way of life, their education system, and what it's like to be a foreigner in the U.S.I am the envy of my neighbors because I have had some of the best childcare they've seen, and my family has gained so many wonderful experiences and memories from hosting au pairs. They are always eager to meet our new au pair and their kids love coming to our house because our au pairs have created a safe, warm and welcoming environment for not only my children but for their friends.My experience with Cultural Care has been very positive. I find that their service is prompt and professional, and that they truly care about their host families and au pairs. My LCC is also a host mom and she has provided great advice based on her own personal experiences. I would definitely recommend this agency to anyone considering an au pair.

I have been a host family for over six years now and am disheartened to see many of these reviews posted about Cultural Care Au Pair. I have found the agency not only responsive to my family's requests and needs but supportive of us when we had questions about our matches or needed help once an au pair arrived.

When two of our au pairs did not work out (back to back) Cultural Care Au Pair was very supportive and understanding about the stress this kind of disruption causes families and really took the time to help us work through our concerns and single in on finding the kind of au pair who would be a good match to our family. We realized we had rushed through the process when rematching with both of these au pairs and hadn't really listened to our internal concerns as they came up. Cultural Care took the time to hear us out and help us find someone who could help restore our faith that this childcare choice was the right one for us. We matched with a younger quiet au pair who came from a strong family background and got more than we anticipated. She was kind and sweet and just loved our son to death. We saw her blossom before our eyes from a shy Swedish girl into a stunning grown up girl ready to head off to medical school. We benefited from the experience tremendously as did she.

We have since had four additional successful years and believe it comes down to personality, flexibility on both parties part and level headed communication. This year four of six au pairs called to wish the kids a happy birthday and sent them gifts. Sadly, many family members weren't even as good about remembering.

I have used Cultural Care/EF Au pairs since 1995. During that time, I've had only two au pairs that did not work out. One, in 1997, who simply didn't like children and one in January, 2008, who was clearly lacking maturity and a risk. I'm sad to say that, after 13 years, I have been treated horribly by this agency. Like most of the other reviews, I've placed call after call to the agency to voice concerns. No one calls me back. When I exited with this recent au pair, I strongly encouraged them to send her home. Instead, they placed her with another family. I am so concerned for that family's children. I had significant problems with billing this year. I got double billed on my amex card. It took 3 months to straighten it out. In 13 years, we've had 9 different lccs, and 3 years where we had no lcc in my area at all. The au pairs themselves have been great. I think, perhaps, Ive just been luckly but this agency is awful. I will never use them again after my experiences this year. I do believe, however, that a cultural exchange program can be a wonderful way to help care for your children. My 3 kids have had really great experiences.

Lisa

This company is about making money. Once they have your money, they will disappear and you'll be stuck with an au pair that can't drive, has lied about everything on her application and doesn't care about your kids.

Buyer Beware! If you are looking for a truly reliable and worthwhile childcare solution go with an American Nanny where you can verify the authenticity of the screening and background check. OR just get a good young person from your neighborhood, their cheaper and you know their parents.

FILE WITH THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU - IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO GET THIS COMPANIES ATTENTION. THEN FILE WITH THE STATE DEPARTMENT AS THIS COMPANY DOES NOT WANT ANYMORE BAD PRESS OR REGULATORY PROBLEMS. THEY WILL PAY. THEY THINK THEY ARE BEYOND THE LAW, BEYOND RULE OF LAW, AND WORST OF ALL ONLY CARE ABOUT MAKING MONEY SO THEY CAN PAY THEIR OWNERS. THIS COMPANY CARES ABOUT NO ONE BUT THEMSELVES AND MAKING THE SALE.

It appears that most au pairs are very poorly screened through offices that do not work with any company marketing the various au pairs on a first come - first took basis. After arriving our au pair confessed to forged background checks and even worse falsified claims of childcare hours. Sadly they also work the au pairs as unwitting innocents describing the streets of America as paved with gold. When they get here they have no idea what they have signed on for. A week later they are leaving to either go back home or just try to find a family that is more like what they had been sold on. Then the company did nothing for us but shrug their shoulders.
Then as far as driving goes - not on your life. Our au pair was a driving death trap. Apparently au pairs constantly run their family cars into other cars, buildings and people. If you are going to risk this first off don't ever put your children in the car and for goodness sakes get a lot more insurance then you already have. After it happened to us I researched with everyone I could find and they have seen it everywhere on the web including one person that showed me the one that ran through some drug store in MA - Cultural Care's home state.

Then when she finally leaves our house and goes to the other unsuspecting family against our recommendation there is only one more thing she was reportedly sleeping with the father of the new family in their home. Please be aware that you are allowing a young, attractive 18 year old girl or boy into your home. If you think your husband won't notice please reconsider your options. It is all over the web and happens all the time. Homes are wrecked on an ongoing basis and her new famliy told me that she was laughed at by Cultural Care.

I guess for the right fool this can be a good option but please heed my advice before any of the above happens to you. Most of the firms escpecially Cultural Care have very dirty contracts that do not allow for refunds of cash but you can certainly get another home wrecker. So mistakes are part of the program that cost you and you alone. I have been fighting with them for months now and all I get is the run around. Good Luck.

Midwest Mother-

We did not deligently research this company before using their service. Great mistake! Our au pair endangered our children and they showed no interest or concern and went on to pass her to another family. That family sent her packing 2 or 3 months later and told the agency that they could not recommend the au pair for childcare. The agency went on to pass the au pair to yet another family. When our problems initially began, we wrote the company and got no reply. We found out that they ask other independent companies to screen au pairs and have no idea what kind of screening is done. Obvious deceptions on applications are not investigated even when the company is prompted and alerted to the possibility. We found out from our experience and those of several others that they go on to place au pairs with other families after those aupairs have proven to be incompetent or out right dangerous. Full disclosure policy is not true in practice. We were not surprised to discover that this was the same agency that placed Louise Woodward (the British au pair who was tried for killing a child in her care). We discovered another of their au pairs who had also been on trial for similar charges. Little or no screening of au pairs equals danger for your children. We cannot recommend this agency, if your children will be left alone with the au pair for extended hours. This company has about one report per month with BBB. My experience was similar to many others posted on this site. When you complain, the company ignores you, buries its head in the sand and hopes you'll dissappear. They only pay attention when you take further action outside of their company. Then they actually respond to you. I noticed Natalie Jordan asked several people to contact her directly. I thought that was interesting because I personally contacted her twice. She ignored me and finally passed me on to someone else. The number of unethical practices I have seen with this company is boundless. They offered to give us a special refund, if we will sign a waiver that forbids us to tell anyone of our experience. Obviously, they want people to vow to keep their unethical practices secret. I am concerned about keeping quiet in exchange for money. I am worried that something terrible will happen a year from now with another of their unscreened au pairs and I will feel responsible for not warning the world. I am petitioning the MA attorney general to personally review this company's record. I am also contacting lobbists in DC about better legislation to stop companies like Cultural Care from not fullfilling their obligations to screen au pairs and passing on au pairs that they know or suspect to be incompetent or dangerous. Their financial policies also require legislation that guides and directs it. I am working on having some investigative articles published with respect to this company and will be gathering verifiable evidence from families who have utilized their service. If you are having issues with this company, keep checking for updates. I am in the process of setting up a website to gather authentic verifiable evidence about the practices of this company so that useful action can be taken. We must go beyond talk and translate our experience into making a difference for the sake of all children and families out there whom we; as fellow humans ,have a civic duty to protect. I will keep you posted.

The reason that I only gave them one star was because I couldn't leave zero. My wife and I are both surgeons and were relocating our practices to a new area. We had used nannies before, but decided to try an Au Pair for a year. Cultural Care did almost no "screening" of the applicants, and the information that they provided to us in terms of applicant experience, command of the English language, and driving abilities was absolutely false. The Au Pair we received could speak almost no English, could not navigate a vehicle out of a driveway, and had almost no childcare experience. She ended up breaking the contract and leaving after less than two weeks, having only watched the children for one 90 minute interval, during which she took a shower and left the children unattended. After she left, we put our membership on hold and hired a nanny. In the interim, Cultural Care Au Pair stopped providing services in out area. We have requested a refund, but they will not return calls or emails. We will be filing a federal lawsuit, likely within the week to get our money back. Remember folks, unless you live in MA any lawsuit would have to be federal, but the benefit it that you can also sue for court costs and attorneys fees.

I cannot leave enough negative feedback that would do this awful company justice. I have filed five federal lawsuits in the past and have won them all, and this would be the most cut-and-dried of any of those, being that they stopped service in our area. My lawyer estimates that it could cost them triple what they owe us when they lose, due to attorney fees and court costs. I will post the outcome after I crush them in court.

I strongly recommend against the use of this company and hope they are put out of business for the sake of the children, the host families, the au pairs, and the industry, for I believe that the concept of cultural exchange is a good one. Any cost savings they claim are being lost by the increasing fees, and having cars destroyed and insurance rates go up doesn’t help in this respect, either.

I have quit this company after three + years of experience with them. I am a single dad physician and am in need of an au pair as I have my kids 50% of the time and leave too early in the AM and return too late in the PM to reliably accommodate my own needs. The first three au pairs I had were acceptable, except that one was a lesbian and she took that relationship far more seriously than her job for the last three months; one stole money from my kids piggy banks (and probably from me as well); and one admitted, that her application was a complete fabrication written by someone else, six months after she was here. She also crashed my car 2 days before returning to her native Poland, leaving me to pay the bill and increased insurance costs. While these experiences were not great, they were at least acceptable. I still mutually get and send frequent emails from the first three girls, who also send me and my daughter’s birthdays and holiday greetings, as despite any negatives, they were truly treated as a part of my family.

In the past 6 months (since the third yearlong au pair left in 11/07), I have had 3 au pairs who stayed less than one week cumulatively. One was so asocial as to not venture out of her room in the two day period she was with my family over Thanksgiving, instead just constantly on her laptop to her friends; one totaled my Lexus SUV by leaving the car in reverse instead of park on a steep driveway without using the parking break, taking out a telephone pole and my neighbors tree at the same time, and the final one, who was from S. Africa declared after 1 day that she did not do house work as she has a servant at home to do that for her and that I should hire a servant for her to clean up the messes the children made, even though the children were not even at my house at the time!!!

Cultural care did nothing to help me with my child care needs during this difficult approximate 6 month hiatus, while they looked for a new or a defective au pair that some other family rejected, which is quite common, according to them. Cultural care is giving me a hard time about refunding my security deposit ($7000 “agency fee”), claiming they provided six weeks of care, when in fact, not one day was supplied, and trying to blame me for the car accident "because I allowed her to drive the car" when she had an Austrian license and they knew my requirements were high for a good driver which is primarily the reason I needed an au pair. I have tried to speak with the president of the company 7 times, but have not been put thru. Since I only had my kids 1/2 time and this was not a split situation, the au pairs averaged less than 20 hours /week of work, which did include the “extra job” of doing my laundry (the first three au pairs were not required by me to do this, they did it as a matter of practicality) as my kids slept with me half the time and my and their laundry and mine were mixed together.

The local representative was completely unhelpful, always referring me to someone else in the company with any problem, and never made one phone call to see how the girl who totaled my car was doing. I was promised my auto deductible deposit back for this more than a month ago and have not been paid.

Reading all the complaints on this list, I think it is time for a class action suit against this company, which I would gladly join in. Every friend of one of my long term au pairs had driving accidents, and the amount of turnover in families is incredible. It is hard to piece this sham together until seeing something like this, but it appears that the company does next to nothing regarding the screening of the applicants, assumes no responsibility when things go wrong, and lies to the applicants as well as to the host parents. I’ve been told by one of their former au pairs that they had to change their name in the past from EF Au Pair to Culturalcare Au Pair for some sort of wrongdoing, and had my children been in the car during the two auto accidents that occurred in my vehicle within 6 months (a 60K Lexus SUV so things would be safe), the company would be looking at a wrongful death suit.

This place has placed not one but two Au pairs with us and frankly neither one should have been allowed to watch our children let alone anyone Else's. The first left our kids by themselves ( an 11 year old and 5 year old) without supervision and did this frequently. She was off smoking somewhere. My wife came home one day early and the Au pair was gone, she came back about an hour later. When we confronted the Au pair she wasn't sure what she did that was so wrong? (Hello ) watching our kids was what she was hired to do.

The second Au Pair made some weird emotional attachment to my wife and had an emotional break down when confronted about getting the kids to school late.

I would recommend you look elsewhere for an Au pair for I am very close to alerting the State attorney general of our situation and contacting others who have had terrible situations and doing something really classy about them.

(Update 2/23)
I have been in contact with a lawyer now. Cultural Care finally addressed my issue with first Au pair after 4 months of playing like they did not hear my complaint. They will also not compensate us for the damage to our family and the bad Au pairs and service we have received thus far.

They are investigating ( perhaps drug testing) the first aupair. Rather then admit their might have been a problem they are going after aupair rather then address the fact they placed her with us. I can smell CYA. can you? Even though they have now placed two crazies in my house they feel it's ok...

They simply stated to me that in their contracts "customer satisfaction is not guaranteed." Thats great if you are buying a stereo, or a clock radio.. But when it comes to taking care of children should it not be guaranteed that the company do everything it can it's power to at the very least to provide safe stable Au pairs that have been screened, given drug tests etc.. I think thats common sense, and to do less is criminal. The fact I missed this in the contract will probably be litigated later.

Please check back for updates...

It took me more than a year to convince my husband that we needed an au pair for our two-year-old twins. I work full time sometimes long hours and he travels weekly for business. We just moved into a new house for which I had many projects planned. I was suffering from exhaustion.

I will begin by saying I thought I picked the perfect au pair. The first two matches I rejected, one because she was too young, the other because of instinct based on some obvious red flags in her application.

I will try to be brief in my grievances ...none of which are aimed at the Cultrual Care because I have yet to formally complain .. but about the industry on a whole.

I went way, way, way out of my way to make my au pair comfortable...I wont go into the many ways I bent over backwards but believe when I say I bent over backwards to the extent of being a contortionist to make her feel like a member of the family, show her a good time, and BEFRIEND her. My friends have told me several times that I am nuts. In addition, i bought her very expensive gifts basically because she wouldn't stop pouting for them...one item in particular worth several hundred bucks that I wish I could have bought for myself. I have paid for extra-curricular activities that she just had to have (again the pout) and in the process ended up jipping myself of more than half the number of hours I could have her work per week. Sleepovers and in the beginning personal shuttle service on a couple of occasions in the middle of the night from clubs. Free reign of the car with never having paid a dime in gas. Once I drove forty minutes to pick up special meal to make her feel at home which was merely "okay". So on, so on, and so on.

As for performance. Let me begin by saying her responsibilities are limited. Watch the children in the home, do children's laundry once per week, pick up children's toys, vacuum the children's room once a week (which I always do) I don't even ask that she does these things while she watches the children, but count laundry as two hours of work, and vacuuming (again I do the vacuuming) as another thirty minutes while the children are not in her care. Still I come home to a house destroyed, completely destroyed every day. I am very neat and usually the children are pretty neat with their toys when I am home. When she is watching however the place is a disaster and usually it is me who has to clean it up after a long day of work. Drawing all over the walls which I have already painted twice and furniture. I warned her of these things when she first arrived and gave her a list of things to watch for. I came home one day to one of my sons chewing a plastic bag (which I also warned her of his tendency to chew). I know deep in my heart that she is not watching the kids when I am gone...unless she is watching them draw on walls and chewing plastic bags and thinks that's okay.

There are many other ongoing problems which I won't get into, but one which concerns me most and I am sure many of you have experienced similar situations is the judgment in meeting men and letting them know where she lives. Eight men within a short period of time have driven her home. These are men that she had just met at clubs...a couple whose characters and own extracurricular activities I've questioned. Oh yeah, and my kids and my home are now on the net. Isn't that great.

I know she is probably a nice girl and a lot of times I like her...but then, if I have to say no to something, i get the look, the pout, the walkaway (I actually become fearful and have to brace myself and work myself up to saying no over several days and I have to say these are things I wouldn't have the nerve to ask for myself). Am I supposed to get a sick fearful feeling in my gut when I spent $20,000 for a service that is supposed to make my life easier. I have a woman (this is a woman by the way) who acts like teenage child (not just a teenage child but our teenage child). My life has honestly gotten much more complicated and much more exhausting. I told my husband no more au pairs. Our time is up at the end of May. We are going to use a babysitting service through a local nanny agency.

My strong advice regarding au pairs ...DO NOT USE THEM. I have had one in the past with a different set of problems. I have my personal opinions of au pairs at this point which I think I will keep to myself.

Anyone can lie on the application. Lies about character, work ethic, etc are hard to prove. There will always be a family friend who is willing to lie as a reference and vouch for them. As for responsiveness of the agency, it probably varies from state to state. It probably depends on how seriously the lcc takes the job. I think my lcc would be responsive. But again I have yet to complain. I am getting close to that point and will let you know if it happens.

We caught our nanny neglecting our infant by leaving it alone in a room for long periods of time. We had a nanny cam to prove the neglect. Cultural Care removed her and FOUND HER ANOTHER FAMILY. They send a great message to the carless au pair "screw up and we will send you somewhere else. Always check references.

AU Pair Care allows you to choose from many AU Pairs at the same time instead of one at a time.

This is bad news. Be careful. They have been involved with two convicted killers as au pairs, and they backed them up.
There are politics involved. If you end up with them, or any agency, trust your gut feeling, and throw out the au pair if she is not right. Do not even wait for their "mediation process". I also learned that an LCC was dating au pairs from the agency, and they are keeping him on....

Cultural Care's customer service SUCKS -- we had an issue with the invoice and it took several e-mails, phone calls and 3 months to resolve. Their matching process is cumbersome and takes at least 24 hours to get one match. They have match coordinators who work outside the agency and on a part-time basis which makes the process even slower than most. They also are terrible about re-matching if your au pair doesn't work out. I spoke to a mother who had a sexual addict as an au pair and it took calling a VP to get this au pair out of her house.

AVOID cultural care if you can!

BE WARNED. Cultural Care is a business. It is a FOR PROFIT business that is supposed to be regulated by the State Department. The State Department does not regulate this rip off company at all. In the name of Cultural exchange this company:
1. Does a poor job screening - two out of three Au Pairs don't like children, lie on their applications and are lazy children. This company makes money from the Au Pairs AND the host families.
2. Does a poor job with customer service. Phone calls, emails never returned. Unresponsive to simple requests.
3. Refund policy is unfair considering the terrible job that this company does. When a rematch happens the company recoups 70% of the fee from the host family side AND the Au pair side.

Unfortunately there isn't a lot of information available about which agencies are better than others. I couldn't find any information so i just went with Cultural Care, and of course you always feel like bad things just won't happen to you. The au pairs from this agency are not screened well, but what's worse is that even when they find out that their au pairs are dangerous and should not be left with children they still send them to new families. I find them to be very unethical. They tried to get me to select an au pair who had lost the son of her last host family. Lost him !!! As in she didn't know where he was !!! The host family was mysteriously unavailable for comment. Similarly the au pair that was in my home was being sent to another family even though I strongly recommended that she not be placed with another family. They never asked me to give the other host family a reference even though i was more than willing to warn them not to accept her. Even after all this, they refuse to refund my money. It seems the whole thing is a scam.

They claim to have a 24 hour guarantee on returning phone calls, but I don't think I recieved a call back after i had paid all my fees. I would keep calling and calling and eventually i'd get an email.

My family feels very hurt by the actions taken by Cultural Care. It's sad that there is nothing else that we can do. We would love to start a world wide campaign and run them out of business, but unfortunately we have to continue with our lives. I can only hope that you young mothers out there will believe when i say not to use Cultural Care. Their au pairs are not safe and do not have enough training. Please please please spend your money elsewhere !!!! You don't want to put your precious children in harm's way. Please don't make the same mistake we did :(

Connecticut

They do not screen well. They charge a high fee but do not provide support. If something goes wrong (and things often have in our experience) they are very unresponsive. Their primary concern is that State Department requirements are met (since they are on the hook for that). If there are issues with the au pair they have provided that do not trigger State Department issues (such as the safety of kids), they are not interested in helping. Their staff has high turnover, so it is also difficult to pursue remedies to any issues.

Also, please note: Cultural Care is EF Au Pair, the company that provided Louise Woodward (the au pair who shook a baby to death back in the '90's).

My first au pair disappeared in the middle of the night and the local coordinator KNEW that the au pair had planned on doing this to us and didn't bother to tell us. In addition she was spreading horrible rumors about my family during her stay. My second au pair was a "re-tread" from another family. I was told that she simply couldn't do highway driving the but truth was much worse. Not only did she have absolutely no driving experience, she had no English skills, and also put my children's lives in danger time and time again with her serious lack of common sense. I wrote a long letter with 5 very serious things (though I could list a million more little incidents as well) that happened to our kids under her watch to the au pair agency, urging that she not be sent on to another family. The local coordinator also told CC not to allow her to continue. Well. . .what do you know . . . she's being sent on to yet another unsuspecting family. I pray that the kids in the next family don't get hurt. Disgusted at the lack of business ethics of this company.

Horrible service from the company. Very poor screening of au pair canidates on their part. Beware--once they get your money, they never return it no matter how unsatisfied you are.

1. Doesn't screen au pairs well (ours faked her English skills and had her friend write all of her emails).
2. Coordinators in other countries encourage aupairs to lie on their applications (told to me by 3 different aupairs).
3. High turnover rate in the company (we have had 3 regional coordinators and 2 local coordinators in 9 months).
4. Very difficult to get regional coordinator or "Match" specialist to return phone calls within a reasonable timeframe (ie less than a week). I couldn't even get them to call me back when I was trying to figure out where to send my check!
5. If aupair leaves before the end of their contracted year the company does very little unless new fees are paid to help find a replacement au pair.
6. Match process is slow and tedious and despite indicating that we needed an au pair with reasonable Engish skills, interviewed 7 au pairs who could not even answer the questions "What do you do when a baby cries?"

There are many au pair companies and while none is perfect, cultural care makes it look like they have a better matching process by "picking" one at a time "carefully" for a host family. They come across as taking care in finding the right match for each family, but it actually becomes very inconvenient for the families and then when the match doesn't work they are not very helpful finding a replacement without more money. In our local area we have had 10/20 families in the past few months need to find a new au pair because they had problems. Despite the sophisticated "match" process the company doesn't seem to do nearly as good a job helping families match with au pairs as other companies that give multiple options at a time and leave it to the family to chose.

I would look long and hard for another company unless you find that you have an exceptional Local coordinator who has been working with them for a long time and offers support.

This agency does not carefully screen its aupairs. I have been with them since 2003 so I know they DO NOT SCREEN their applicants. Three aupairs could not drive at all. One aupair could not swim to save her own life. One aupair left her own three children behind to come to the U.S. Once she got here through the agency, she left my family and became illegal. Another aupair used the 'Aupair' visa to come to the U.S. to become illegal. I had another aupair who could speak NO English. The agency interpreter could not even understand her. I stay with the aupair program because I have had great experiences with some of my aupairs but I will not be staying with this agency. The agency has little support for the host family and absolutely NO support for the young girls who come over here to experience a different culture. It is a shame that they are allowed to stay in business. The host family is charged alot of $ for supposed screening, training and support but you do not get it!

This agency is the worst. They take the easiest possibly way out of a situation that often does not benefit anybody but themselves. They charge the host family a very high fee and they charge the au pair as well. Then they provided little to no support when you need them to help when issues arrive. Most au pairs arrive in the USA with little to no driving experience and then are supposed to be driving your children! In addition they don't return phone calls and the staff has a super high turn over rate so you never get the same person twice.

I joined the Cultural Care Au Pair program and received an au pair who created more work for me than help that she gave. I had to clean up after her as well as my children. In addition, she came home drunk often and couldn't perform her duties the next day. I withdrew from the program and expected a refund of a portion of the monies paid, but they refused to process a refund. They said I didn't deserve a refund according to their calculations, which penalized me twice for withdrawing from the program. After many emails and ignored phone calls, I gave up. They provide inadequate childcare and then steal your refund.