Stays abroad for minors

Accommodation with a host family: THE solution for stays abroad for minors.

For all parents, the need for stays abroad for minors, either by choice (so that they progress quickly in Spanish) or an obligation (compulsory internship in high school or first year of University in Spain), is a reality more and more usual. Apprehension on the part of parents and young people is commonplace during this first separation: it is a new step and a new adventure in family life. In all cases, a homestay is both unique and best choice for parents and their children.

Stays abroad for minors: Immersion Program

What is an Inmersion Program?

Many parents want their minor children to progress in a foreign language outside the school curriculum, and are very interested in immersion stays.

The host family is the accommodation that best guarantees the safety, comfort and real immersion of the young. Families must correspond to the profile and expectations of the young person and his parents: availability, hospitality, composition (the family must always be made up of several members, and especially children of the same age as the young person), quality of accommodation. To share daily life, to make unavoidable visits and all other leisure activities practiced by the family … it is a unique experience, enriching and sure, because at every moment the young person will be, at least, accompanied by one member of the family. Finally, a correspondent of the organization is on the spot, and reachable by both the parents and the young, during the whole stay.

If the young person wishes to reinforce the linguistic immersion, private lessons in Spanish can be programmed. A teacher moves to the home of the family. It would be counterproductive to take classes in a school because the young person would then be in contact with other students of the same nationality.

Madrid is a welcoming, safe city, where the cultural and leisure offer is very important: it is an ideal destination for stays abroad for minors all year long.

Important steps

If you want your child to have a stay in immersion, the steps are simple. You will need to provide:

– The exit authorization document (https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/entry-exit/eu-citizen/spain/index_en.htm )

– Health Insurance

– The valid identity card (check the date)

– Contact the airline to know the conditions of accompaniment of the minor traveling alone (in general, the airline asks for the name and phone number of the person who picks up your child at the airport, and this person is one of the members of the host family)

– Complete and sign a release of responsibility and release of your child to the organization.

Obligatory stays abroad

For high school students and new university students, a stay abroad is now almost always mandatory. Trainees of Professional or Technological High Schools, and especially first-year university students, are brought to work or study in another country for more or less long periods, while they are still under 18.

For these young people, the option of accommodation with a host family is the best. Guaranteeing both reception, care and the best possible environment for students and trainees, these families allow minors to experience their first foreign experience in complete safety.

Families are there to answer newcomers’ questions, make them discover their neighborhood, guide them so that they can quickly locate themselves. Meals are taken with the family (dinner on weekdays, and the two main meals on weekends), and most often they invite their young host to their leisure activities, and make them discover their city. It is therefore a real and authentic  life experience, in Spanish of course, and an experience that will go well beyond the limits of the student’s stay: it will be the beginning of a long friendship story with his new Spanish family .

Pre-departure procedures are the same as for immersion trips.

For longer stays, we give parents the opportunity to visit families, so that they can choose for themselves what will be their child’s home for a whole year.

We are waiting for you in Madrid!