Hosts provide the caring environment, room, and daily meals.  We do not ask our host families to become legal guardians for the international students, this responsibility rests with Pacific Intercultural Exchange.  All participants have medical insurance and students provide their own spending money for expenses incurred outside of the host family’s home (i.e. clothes, school supplies, and entertainment).

Yes you can! Your Area Representative will present several students for your consideration, based on your hobbies and interests.  However, you will ultimately select the student you would like to host and you may consider gender and nationality too.

For the Fall program, students arrive in the United States in August or September.  For the Spring program, participants arrive in December or January.  Students generally stay with a host for 5-10 months, but you can request to be an arrival or temporary family for P.I.E. for a shorter term.

There is no such thing as a typical host family. Students are interested in a wide variety of hosting situations. Some students who come from large families would like to experience being the only child in a family, some always wanted to have siblings.  American households are very diverse and host parents with Pacific Intercultural Exchange may be married, single, retired, with children, or no children at all.

In most of our two-parent families, both parents work. We are not looking for families to entertain or consider the exchange student a tourist.  P.I.E. looks for families who will share their typical American lifestyle, ideas and care with someone from another culture. As the student attends a local high school, he/she will quickly develop a circle of friends and school activities to keep entertained.

P.I.E. requires students to demonstrate a level of fluency that will allow them to function in an American high school shortly after arrival in the USA.  The English level of your student will depend upon a number of factors, including the length of time the language has been studied, the environment in which the student received the instruction, or the student’s home country.  P.I.E. students are administered an English language proficiency test and their language level is disclosed on their biography, but you may also read letters written by the participant and teacher recommendations to better assess the student’s language level.

The U.S. Department of State concluded as a matter of policy that host families should not be paid for hosting exchange students.  However, families who host for Pacific Intercultural Exchange are entitled to a $50.00 per month charitable contribution deduction they may claim on their itemized tax returns.  P.I.E. will send the appropriate supporting documentation to each family at the end of the tax year.

Many of the students accepted into the program indicate an interest in being placed in families with children. The facility for learning a language is never greater in children than when they are young and their interest, curiosity and acceptance of people different from themselves is strongest at a young age.

Some program participants are prepared to share a bedroom with a child of the same gender, age 10 or older. The exchange student must be provided with his/her own bed, but we have found that a student who shares a room often makes the transition from visitor to family member more quickly.

U.S. Department of State Regulations preclude a family from hosting more than one exchange student at a time, unless a compelling reason is presented.  In cases where an exception is made, a maximum of two exchange students may be hosted, but the participants must be from different countries and speak different native languages.

Each family and student is assigned an Area Representative who will work with them during the program. This person is prepared to assist you with issues that might arise during the course of the exchange. In the event of a serious concern or irreconcilable differences, Pacific Intercultural Exchange will remove the exchange student from your home.  We kindly ask that you permit P.I.E. at least two weeks to relocate the student.

Complete our online pre-application or call Pacific Intercultural toll free at 1-888-743-8721.