"Things may not be how they seem."

Explain to au pairs more realistically and more honestly.

"La familia es muy cálida"

La familia es muy cálida, amable y siempre que necesito ayuda están para mí.

"Enjoyable"

Awesome family. The company keeps in touch pretty often too

"It is good to have a good family"

I have enjoyed so far, it helps if your family is open to communication and compromise. I still am enjoying it very much !

"Cultural Care has gone downhill fast."

We used Cultural Care in 2020 and had a great experience with our au pair. We tried again in 2022 and had a terrible experience because after matching with an au pair and securing her arrival date, she ghosted us and Cultural Care was completely unhelpful. We began looking for another au pair winter 2023 and it took a very long time to find any candidates that would actually even take the time to speak with us. Our matching “specialist” was an absolute waste of time so I consulted a second matching specialist who suggested we open our search to South America, which we had been hesitant to do. We ended up taking her advice and in May 2024 matched with an au pair from South America, paid an extra fee to “expedite” her arrival, paid the nearly $10K program fee, and low and behold, her visa was denied. Now, when the visa is denied, the au pair can appeal the decision and try again, which is what our au pair wanted to do, and she actually paid for a second appointment to appeal the denial. However, the home office then informed her that they refused to support her appeal and were dropping her from the program. Then our useless matching specialist had the gall to tell me that the home office is just looking out for the au pair’s best interest which is of course complete poppycock. Cultural Care didn’t do their due diligence to begin with and lord knows how many other visa denials they are already dealing with so they don’t want to be bothered with an appeal and they really don’t care about the au pair. So here we are once again completely out of luck, and once again Cultural Care proved itself to be completely useless and an absolute waste of time. They told us that we would have to start the process all over again by looking for a new au pair. No thank you. Cultural Care continually shirks responsibility and blames everyone else for repeated failures when clearly the issue lies in properly vetting these young women and properly preparing them for the Embassy interview. In addition, it is impossible to speak with anyone of real authority at Cultural Care. Please heed the negative reviews and learn from our experience and note that in a situation such as this, I have yet to hear from anyone at the agency who provided me with any substantive explanation for such a massive failure.

UPDATE: Well, I figured out on my own why our au pair’s visa was denied and why they won’t support her in an appeal (because do NOT for one second expect Cultural Care to give you a straight answer). Turns out our au pair’s last J1 visa expired 3 months ago, so it was too soon for her to apply for another J1 visa. She never had a chance! She never should have been approved as a potential au pair until enough time had lapsed for another J1 visa approval. This is part of the greater failure here with Cultural Care. They don’t vet these girls appropriately, they will never admit that they screwed up, and at the end of the day, they really don’t care about all the time and effort you wasted. So incredibly frustrating.

"Bewerbungsprozess"

Direkt nachdem ich eine Kurzanmeldung abgegeben hatte, wurde sich bei mir gemeldet. Ich wurde bei allem unterstützt und konnte mich jeder Zeit melden. auch die regelmäßigen Gespräche und das gute Verhältnis zu meiner Betreuerin hat die Erfahrung nur noch besser gemacht.

"Responsive, nimble"

Responsive, nimble, great service!

"Living goods experiences "

Really good. My host family treats me like part of the family, and the parents is always trying to help me in everything I need. And I’m having a good time taking care of the kids.

"Lots of guidance on choosing a great au…"

Lots of guidance on choosing a great au pair. Good support throughout the rest of the process.

"Laurie is a great person"

Laurie is a great person, but when we need to ask questions, she ends up taking a long time to answer and when she answers she gives some basic and not-so-enlightening answers. About the courses we need to take to get credits, she does not understand very well and ends up referring us to courses that we do not get credits with and are usually courses that exceed much of the value of Host Family help.