By on December 18th, 2015

You Don’t Have to Be Rich to Be a Host Family

All too often, we hear people say that they wish they could host an international student, “But it’s just going to be so expensive!” Actually, it’s not expensive at all to become a host family. In fact, with USH, we actually pay you to host international students for a few weeks, months, or up to a year. Of course, the cost of having an extra mouth to feed isn’t all that people worry about when deciding whether or not to be host families.

You Don’t Need a Lot of Extra Room

First of all, you don’t need to live in a mansion with dozens of extra bedrooms to host an international student. In fact, you might not even need to have a spare bedroom. If you get an extra bed, and you do a bit of organizing, your student can share a room with one of your kids. Basically, if you can comfortably fit another person in your home, you can host a student.

You Don’t Have to Host for a Full Year

Now, you might be thinking, “Well, yes, that would be fine for a few days or even a couple of months, but a whole year?” If you’re not sure that your home can handle an extra person for a long-term stay, you can always just sign up for shorter hosting periods. You don’t have to commit to hosting a student for an entire year the first time around.

No Experience Necessary

At USH, we don’t believe that you need to have experience to be a great host family. And you don’t have to have a lot of extra income (and, as we said, we’ll actually help with that), but you do have to be ready to open up your home and your family to the student you host.

Basically, if you’re willing to spend some free time doing fun and educational things in your area, and you’re excited to be a part of a genuine cultural exchange, then you have all it takes to be a great host family. Whether you have kids or you’re single, and whatever age you are, if you’re ready to be an ambassador to a student who wants to work on their English skills and learn more about the US, then you’ll be a fantastic host. Apply with USH today and get the process started.