Hosting Application Distribution Process

The Hosting Application Distribution Process is intended to have a fair and consistent process that helps to ensure that all teams have the opportunity to place easier-to-place students and that our weakest teams aren't left to place our hardest-to-place students.

For a summary of changes for the NH19 cycle, follow this link.

If you have questions or suggestions for future changes, please contact your TDS. Thank you!

Key Dates for 2019

Overview of Placement Process

Unless otherwise noted, all placement process guidelines and dates apply equally to Sponsored Programs (CBYX, FLEX, and YES) as they do to Core Program participants.

Once Hosting Operations Staff have reviewed and accepted applications, the applications will be made Regionally or Nationally Available in Global Link and visible on MyAFS. Click here for more information on finding students.

Students from larger partner countries (defined as most partners who send 50+ students to the U.S.) will be assigned to international travel gateways (New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Seattle, and Los Angeles) and made Regionally Available. The following countries will have their students assigned to their gateway regions right away: Austria, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, and Thailand.

Students from all other countries (including YES, FLEX, and CBYX students) will initially be made Nationally Available and can be placed with a family in any team. School Placements are allowed if the conditions outlined below are met. Starting on April 15th, Nationally Available students (excluding YES, FLEX, and CBYX) will be assigned to gateways and made Regionally Available. FLEX, YES, and CBYX students will be assigned to gateways on May 23rd ahead of the Sponsored Programs draft on June 6th.

By June 6th, all Teams must Place and Community Place enough students to be able to meet 100% of their NH19 Hosting Goal or Target.

Placing a Student on Area Team Hold (AT Hold)

Hosting Volunteers and Team Development Specialists (TDS) may request an Area Team Hold for a student that is Regionally or Nationally Available to give volunteers time to reach families and to give families time to decide about hosting that specific student.

Only two students may be on Hold at one time for any given family. Thus, the family name must be included in the Hold request. One AT Hold request may be submitted per student per Area Team per day, even if multiple families are interested in the same student.

Holds will automatically be released at 11:45pm Eastern on the 2nd day after the Hold request is accepted.

While a student is on Hold for a team, that team only has the right to PWP the student. If a queue of Holds or other requests forms for the same student, each subsequent request will be processed in the order in which it was entered. For example, Community Placed requests are accepted in the order they are received; having a student on Hold gives no advantage in Community Placing.  

Volunteers and staff are expected to release Holds as soon as it is apparent that the intended family will not be hosting the student. To release a hold, submit a “Release AT Hold” placement request in Global Link. To help ensure that hold queues move as quickly as possible, people will receive auto emails 10 days after entering a Hold request if the Hold is still in queue to confirm if they still want the Hold or if the family they had in mind is no longer interested and the Hold can be released.

Placing a Student with a Family (Placed without Papers, PWP)

When a family commits to hosting a particular student, a PWP request should be entered. If additional approval is needed before accepting the PWP request, such as school or nontraditional approval, a detailed note should be added to the “Comments” box here:

If a Team wants to place a student who is on Hold for another Team, they may enter a PWP request, but it will not be honored until their place in the queue arrives.

Once a family is fully screened, Hosting Operations staff will assign the student a Family Placement Confirm (FPC) status, and the host family application will be transferred to the partner country to share with the student.

Placing a Student Directly in a School (School Placed)

The School Placed status will be used when a school guarantees acceptance of a particular student with a signed Placement Acceptance Form uploaded into Global Link on the student’s Placement Detail page.

School Placed Students count as part of a Team’s Community Placed pool even though they are designated for specific schools.

If the school fails to find a family for the student by May 23rd, the Team must decide either to Community Place the student or return the student to Regionally Available.

School Placement requests for Sponsored Programs students will be reviewed and accepted on a case by case basis. Contact your Sponsored Programs Hosting Coordinator if you wish to School Place a YES, FLEX, or CBYX student.

Selecting Students for Your Team (Community Placing)

Students who have been in Regionally Available for at least 14 days may be Community Placed starting on March 5th or 6th at 7pm local time in the assigned gateway:

March 5th: Washington DC, Chicago, and Seattle gateways
March 6th: New York, Minneapolis, Dallas, and Los Angeles gateways

• New York & Washington DC– 7pm EST (will show as 7pm in Global Link)
• Chicago & Minneapolis & Dallas – 7pm CST (will show as 8pm in Global Link)
• Seattle & Los Angeles – 7pm PST (will show as 10pm in Global Link)

In order to find all students in Global Link who are eligible to be Community Placed, you may pull a list of available students using this search filter:

Between March 5th and May 31st, teams may CP up to 50% of their hosting goal. Once a team has CPed 50% of its goal, the team will not be allowed to CP any additional students unless they first place a student from their CP pool. Starting June 1, Teams will have until Thursday, June 6 to CP up to their Goal.

TDS staff will help ensure that each Team has taken the proper number of Sponsored Programs, Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, and Thai students.

Starting in mid-April Nationally Available Students (excluding YES, FLEX, and CBYX) will be assigned to gateways. Once these students are Regionally Available, they may be Community Placed.

Also beginning on April 15th, teams hosting YES students may choose to Community Place one or two YES students, depending on the Team’s YES goal. Teams with a YES goal of 1-5 students will only be allowed to CP one YES student, while Teams with a YES goal of 6 or more students may CP up to two YES students. Once a Community Placed YES student is placed with a host family, the team will be able to Community Place an additional student.

If a Team requests to CP a student for whom there are Hold requests pending, all outstanding holds on the student will be honored before the student is CP’d to the requesting team. This still holds true even if the team that wants to CP the student has an active Hold on the student.

Only on May 23rd can previously CP’d students (excluding YES students) be returned to Regionally Available.

On May 23, all YES, FLEX, and CBYX students will be assigned to a gateway and there will be a moratorium on Hold requests, School Placements, and Community Placements for YES, FLEX, and CBYX students.

On June 6, there will be a mandatory Sponsored Programs draft for each gateway. The draft will include all unplaced CBYX, FLEX, and YES students. Teams will be required to Community Place 100% of their Sponsored Programs goal.

Interested in Placing a Student CPed to Another Team?

If your team wants to place a student CPed to another team, your Hosting Coordinator should contact the other team’s hosting coordinator, or your TDS should contact the other team’s TDS asking for permission to show the student. If the team does not have a lead for the student, they may be willing to release the student or facilitate a trade for one of your students.

Starting on June 24th, if the Team is not willing to release the student your Team would like to place, and school permission can be obtained, the Community Placed Release Rule may be invoked. In these cases, the Team where the student is CP’d has 48-hours in which to place the student or the student must be released to the new team for placement.

The Team that relinquishes the student will be encouraged—but not required—to select a replacement student from the team that made the placement (except in the case of a gateway change). Teams that place students from other teams are still expected to place 100% of their own CPed students.

The Community Placed Release Rule applies to welcome, semester, and permanent family placements.