CHI - Cultural Homestay International - San Rafael, California

Global F.

It's hard to believe, but back in 2008, Milena Minkova, CHI's Work and Travel director started Global Friend's journey by approving our company for first cooperation. We didn't have nothing but a desk in the apartment and an ambition to transform the market and make a world a better place. 13 years later, after many ups and downs, we still stand strong together as a big Family.
CHI would always be the FIRST, the BEST and most honorable J1 Visa Sponsor. Thank you Tom, Lilka, Milena and many dedicated people who's been with us all these years, navigating us through challenging times.
Big love!

Global Friends!!!

Alejandro M.

The best sponsor to visit USA!!! My best experience in my life was visiting USA with the Work and Travel Program from CHI, they help you to get the better of your time in USA and I´m proud to be part of the team !! I hope more people travel with CHI,
I´m sure it´s the most professional sponsor to visit USA! Thank you CHI !!

Agnieszka W.

I took part in Work and Travel Program on 2017 and CHI was my sponsor. I truly recommend the Organisation because of the amazing and hard working people!

I always received support, help and advices during my summer. What is more, CHI organises great events like: J1- day, trips to show you area, museums, parties where you can exchange culture with other participants from from all over the world and a lot of opportunities to make your time the best as possible!

I hardly recommend to take part in CHI contest. Having won Cultural Ambassador Award, I got an opportunity to travel to Washington D.C., meet CHI members in person and represent my country in Panel Discussion in U.S. Department of State! As you can imagine that was an amazing and life changing experience!

Frankly speaking, CHI made a lot of effort to make my summer the best 4 months in my life!

Do not hesitate to choose CHI as your sponsor! 🙂

Francesco

Wasted weeks of my time and added additional irrelevant criteria on the spot instead of trying to figure out a solution together (as much as I still qualified for a J1 Trainee visa, but I guess they couldn't care less about what the official BridgeUSA website says. Not that it matters, as they do not possess a thorough understanding of the two bullet points in the traineeships-related page). "Thank you" so much.

Katelyn F.

What we were told the process and experience would be like and what the reality was were drastically different. The expectations and requirements of us were much more demanding than we were told and it complicated our lives greatly. We were very upfront about our situation and lifestyle and we were assured by multiple people that our responsibility was minimal. That was not the case at all but yet we were left to just make it work and adjust our entire life to do so.
We also did not feel like we had adequate support throughout the process - it felt like we were just stuck to figure it out ourselves. It felt like there was pressure to stick it out and make it work because there were no other options even though we were frustrated and felt the placement really wasn’t working well with our lifestyle and family.

If you have older teens or no kids at all, the reality might be bit different but our experience having two very little kids has been less than pleasant overall. We will not host again and will definitely not recommend CHI.

Denice S.

This company brings high school kids to the US without permanent placement. This kid get here and don’t have a permanent place to live and then they beg for people to keep them. This is happened two years in a row at our local high school. I feel so sorry for these kids. They think they’re coming over here to stay at one high school and then they transfer them from house to house from high school high school. I think this is a terrible company and they should be ashamed of themselves. They’re only in it for the money not for the kids or the kids experience. It is about the money nothing else.

Kristi L.

Do not work with this company, they are awful. I had told
Frances Barbour about my au pair and didn't think it wasn't a right fit twice. She really pushed for us to work with her. She was already a rematch should have known better. She couldn't cook which she said she could do. Her english was awful and she didn't even do the laundry or basic things I asked. Instead she would send screenshots of my messages to Frances and then Frances would always stick up for the aupair. I took the aupair to Hawaii, Mexico where we lived for a month and after 2 1/2 months she took a paid vacation for 2 weeks. She comes back to Marin, she didn't tell me she needed to stay at my house because I was still on vacation. She started expecting me to pay for her hotel. Not to mention, she did some really bad things such as leave the stove on and go to sleep. Leave my kids in Mexico at a camp at a beach because she didn't understand what I wrote in english and just didn't wake up to watch my kids. Even after all those things, they kicked us out of the program because the aupair made up lies about the living situation and expected us to pay her for a half of week after 2 weeks of paid vacation. Frances said you should be able to negotiate that but could care less in helping us. She only wanted to help the au pair and do nothing to help us the paying customer. WE didn't get any money back after 2 1/2 months and it was the worst experience I've ever had with an agency. Not to mention, they never even listened to our side of the story before kicking us out. I should have known better now looking at all the bad reviews.

Filip T.

This company will not help you with any problems you might be having. Whenever you ask for help they will tell you that agreement is between you and the employer and that they cannot do anything(even though they are the sponsor agency)