I have used CC and APIA and I will never return to APIA. I hired my eighth AP thtu them. After two months and no notice, she requested rematch. My counselor would not, despite my request, schedule an exit meeting, and counseled her that it was OK to leave midshift. No remorse or apology. Allowed her to rematch and did not help me find a replacement and proceeded to bad-mouth me. Their method of finding a rematch is backwards and hindering (the LCCs trade them around like baseball cards and there is no online search). I complained to the BBB, and the manager who contacted me just gave me lip service about what happened. Btw, the LCC serves western Fairfax County.

Despite minor grievances, I have returned to CC for my 9th AP.

APIA is my preferred agency but matching is a nightmare with them. We have an easy gig, car, vacations, and great are (for D.C.) and it is sooooo time consuming on APIA we have gone with CC last two years. Maybe we are not patient enough for APIA like we were first few years now. I think if Apia did simple things like let families see if a candidate even looked at your profile we would still use them, but they do not and matching is like an abyss of uncertainty and exhausting.

I realize this is an old thread but our experience may benefit future searchers on the subject so I've decided to respond anyway. We found a great candidate through GoAuPair.com, but will never use them again and will certainly not recommend them. They are completely disorganized with little to no follow through. Regardless of who you work with, searching for an Au Pair is a time consuming process, especially when it's your first and don't already have help, and this agency provides not assistance during the search. GoAuPair has no additional information on the candidates than what you see online, and do no get involved in the matching process at all. They do not help you screen or make any suggestions on how to best target your search and interview based on your needs/ concerns. Several of the other agencies do, resulting in a much more likely successful match.
Once you are moving through the process it is up to you to follow-up with the agency and prompt the necessary documents, visits and conversations. The agency will not provide you necessary information unless you know to ask for it. Most disappointing is that the agency in the Au Pair's home country is providing them with different information regarding the process than what you are being told in the US. When they arrive they are in for a few surprises.
Our Au Pair arrived and her welcome packet, which I reminded them to mail two weeks in advance has somehow fallen through the cracks so we wouldn't receive it for another week. This meant we were without information regarding a lot of important and time sensitive material need to make decisions such as medical insurance. It also meant a lost week of prodcutivity for the Au Pair since she didn't have the necessary documents to go to the DMV.
I did reach out to a manager to share some of my concerns. She responded two weeks later that she hadn't had a chance to respond to my email earlier and assumed the issues had since been resolved, but that I was welcome to let her know otherwise if I still wanted to talk.

Anonymous wrote:as we just had a match fall through at the last minute because she wasn't eligible for a visa.

Wow. PP, do you know why? It seems to be pretty rare that APs do not get their visa granted.
On the other hand, the agencies of course don't refuse the visa, that would be the local embassy. It might be the APs fault (by misbehaving in the embassy or lying to agency/embassy) more than the agency's? The agency wouldn't know if an applicant had previously overstayed a visa or if the embassy would consider her an immigration risk (e.g. a family member who had come to the US on a non-immigrant visa and stayed) unless the applicant adivsed them that there might be a problem.

Anonymous wrote:Any information on Go AuPair or EurAupair?

I am using GoAuPair and love them.
I have been hosting for many years and have been before with InterExchange, APC, APIA, CCAP. Go Au Pair is my favorite out of all that I used

With GoAuPair I love the quality of candidates and a favorable ratio of candidates to families. With 4 kids I am able to find excellent Au pairs excited to come to me.
Also the are flexible with families as an agency.

I like all the different options you can sort by when you're looking for an Au Pair with APIA. I'm not sure they vet well enough as we just had a match fall through at the last minute because she wasn't eligible for a visa. Pretty frustrating. But I definitely second everyone's sentiments to check out the community counselor to make sure you get along with them well enough!

Personally, I've found that you can't get an AP from every country. I haven't found any major AP companies that offer candidates from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, etc.

But if you're looking for German or Spanish-speaking APs, I don't think you'll have any trouble at all.