Agency question ...
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Anonymous
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It sounds like APIA is the most common agency used in the area so far. I have a few questions too, I hope people don't mind.
(1) Does anyone know how many clusters/LCCs cover Northwest DC? Is it one cluster, or are there several covering different neighborhoods? (2) And if you are in a NW DC neighborhood, do you like your APIA LCC? (3) What countries are most commonly represented in the APIA au pair pool? We are with Au Pair Care and thinking of switching. |
Anonymous
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I am in NoVA, and can't answer your DC questions, but I've found the most common nationalities in APIA clusters here are
Germany Brazil Mexico Then a spattering of other European nations and few Asians. |
Anonymous
+1 there are also a lot of Thai au pairs. |
Anonymous
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Our cluster in Bethesda has a lot of Friendship Heights/CCDC APs in it, so I'm sure there are multiple clusters for upper NW.
Our cluster is big on Germany and Brazil as well; also a bunch of other LA and European countries. We switched from APC to APIA and are SO happy we did. |
Anonymous
Thanks! Can you share why you decided to switch, and what the difference is that you've noticed between the two? Are there many Japanese au pairs in the APIA pool? Anyone in other agencies notice many Japanese au pairs in their pool when matching? APC used to have many Japanese au pairs, but they no longer seem to. One of our former au pairs, who is Japanese, mentioned that the Japanese agency she went through doesn't contract with APC anymore, but she was not sure which agencies the Japanese au pairs go through now. |
Anonymous
| We are with Au Pair Care, and have been happy with them. That being said, I think the only two important things are 1) the Au Pair that you choose and 2) the LCC that you are assigned, b/c that will help you if you have issues. We've had great and terrible LCCs, but it hasn't really mattered b/c we had great au pairs. Our APs have gotten frustrated with the lack of responses from terrible LCCs, though. |
Anonymous
I switched form au pair care to APIA and have been really happy. Email me if you want to discuss the transition off-line. I can also give you a promo code that should give you a small discount. jennifer dot horowitz at gmail dot com. |
Anonymous
No - unfortunately-- I don't think there are ANY Japanese girls currently in the pool. I suspect like many agencies, APIA has well defined relationships with some countries, and near non-existent relationships with others. Japan does not seem to be one they have a good system in. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Anonymous
| What is OP? |
Anonymous
| OP means Original Poster, which is the person who initiated the thread. |
Anonymous
| While not an active thread, I thought I'd provide feedback on Go Au Pair in case someone is looking. My sister used the agency for 6 years and I've used it for two, so over 8 years with the company. I've been very pleased with the company, selection of APs and our LCC (nova). Very responsive, I have found a good selection of APs and, while I haven't had issues with my APs (currently on second), I believe the LCC would be responsive based only on her continuous checking in on us via email. I believe our LCC has about 15 families, which makes it much more reasonable for the LCC. Not sure why Go Au Pair isn't as highly used in this area, but I suspect it's because most people do what I did - go with a recommendation from someone you know. My sister and her friends all used GAP, but they live near Boston, the Cape and Islands. |