Visiting Family Program Experience Danish Family Life!

The Visiting Family program gives you the unique opportunity to experience Danish family traditions and values. With your visiting family, you can share occasional family dinners, take part in various family-related activities, and build a Danish network - and get friends for life.

DIS requires that all visiting family students are able to commit to visiting their visiting families at least once a month. The level of interaction after that is up to the student and the family. Once DIS has made the initial contact, it is up to both parties to share the responsibility of meeting up. Being a part of the program is a commitment for both the family and the student, and most find that communication is the key to a truly great experience.

Who can sign up for the Danish Visiting Family Program?

All students not living with a host family can sign up for the program. That means, if you live in a Kollegium, Folkehøjskole, with a Danish Roommate or a DRC/Living and Learning Community. If DIS is unable to find a visiting family for you, you will be placed on a waitlist and will be matched according to interests and your profile.

As a Visiting Family Student You Can Expect...

To be matched with a family based on commonalities in interests and in wishes for frequency of visits. We always match with the expectation that the match with the family is a good one and that it will result in a relationship with the family.

As a student with food restrictions, you can expect to matched with a family who will not be able to fulfill your dietary wishes. Of course, food and cooking is a large part of building a relationship with the family but there are not many vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free families in the visiting family program. Of course we will try to find a family that can accommodate your diet but if we cannot, we encourage you to offer to bring recipes for the food you can eat and maybe even offer to cook for them/ with them. Use this as an opportunity to share part of who you are with the family.

You can also expect to have transportation time from 30 minutes to an hour from your home to the family’s home. DIS will provide you with a punch card which gives you 5 return trips from your address to the family’s address.

Some families ask to be matched with two students. If your family is matched with another student the other student’s name and email will be included in your matching email.

Commitment

When you sign up for the visiting family program you are making a commitment to yourself, as well as the family you are matched with and DIS. The commitment we require of you is that you make time, at least once a month, to meet your family. You can of course see them more often if you and the family have that wish but the minimum expectation that DIS requires is that you make a once monthly commitment to the family.

When you fill out your application you can still choose ‘every other week’ or ‘weekly’, but note that DIS and your assigned host family will expect you to live up to that commitment. In almost 80% of all matches, visiting family students see their families more often than once a month and we encourage you to do the same - if you commit you will get an experience that help you build relationship that will last a lifetime.

How Do You Sign Up for a Visiting Family?

You can sign up for a visiting family as a part of the DIS online registration process after acceptance into the program.

When Do I Find Out Who my Family Is?

We match two times for every semester: one time before students arrive and one time after arrival. All students are matched based on interest and compatibility with families and there is no guarantee that if you apply early you will be matched before arrival.

For Fall 2013 semester, the latest you will receive information on whether you have been matched will between September 2nd-6th.