Hey everybody! So, as some of you saw, I posted on twitter asking if I should make a blog post about my journey to becoming an au pair for any of you guys that may be interested! I got a few replies, and they all said they know people who also would like to know more about the process, so here I am!
Okay, so for you guys that may not know what an au pair is, its pretty much a live-in babysitter. Here in the States, many people have au pairs come from other countries (I even had one from France when I was very little) because they're cheaper than an actual nanny, and its mainly for late teens-young adults of other countries to come stay in the States practically for free so they can come see America and stuff.
On the other hand, many au pairs from , the States go to other countries to be an au pair to both experience the country and its culture, but also to teach the children of the family english! Since english has become one of the leading languages of the world, au pairs are in high demand to teach kids english at an early age while their brain is in its early development and they can pick up languages quicker. So! In my case, I'm going to both have a blast in Spain (oh yeah! I'm going to Spain for those who don't know already, I forgot I hadn't mentioned where I'll be going yet! whoops >.<) and travel throughout Europe, but also to teach the daughter of the family, Maria, english :) She's so precious and cute, I'm sure you guys will see many pictures of her as I post about my time there.
Here are my tips about looking into being an au pair, and the process it takes!
(remember this is coming from someone who lives in the United States, so parts, getting the visa for example, may not be applicable to those who live elsewhere)
1) To start, you need to know where to look!
For those who live outside of the U.S. and would like to au pair here, I suggest using
aupairinamerica.com ! My parents used that agency to get the au pair I had as a kid so I know its trust worthy! As for those who would like to look at other countries across the world, you should use the website I used;
aupair-world.net . It's basically a dating profile (hahaha) but thats the best way I can describe it. You choose what countries you're interested in pursuing, the age of the children, how many children you're willing to take care of, ext. and then it all goes into your profile so families can search and find you based off that! You then write a lot in your profile section; basic things like who you are, what type of person you are, what you like, if you're in school or what you're doing with your time, if you've had experience with kids before...the whole shebang. You pretty much are selling yourself here to these families; ie. the dating site comparison.
2) Now you choose a family!
So just like families can find you, you can find them through the same search criteria. When I was applying, I was very eager so I mainly applied to families in the beginning; I didn't really wait for them to come to me. What was shocking was, even with the time difference, I heard back from three separate families in the first 5 hours or so! After a few days, the offers were coming in, it was crazy!! Maybe its just because I'm such a cutie ;)........but realistically, thats really just how high in demand au pairs are! So if you are really interested, I'm telling you, you're practically guranteed a job. So, after you talk back and forth between a few families you really like through the website, you then set up a time to video chat them through Skype (Skype is a must!) so they can talk to you in person (sorta) and mainly to see that you're real and yeah. During my time, I had almost 20 families request me, but I only was down to 3 to choose from to the point where I actually wanted to Skype them. After skyping the families, I immediately knew which one I wanted to be with. Video chatting is SO important because you can really get a feel for these people and see if you would enjoy your time with them. The other families were very sweet and nice, but I chose the family I will be joining now because we instantly clicked and were laughing so hard by the end of the interview. I absolutely love them, they share the exact same personality as me, and I am so grateful to have found them. Remember! You're living with these people and spending pretty much all of your time with them, you want to make sure they're the right ones for you!
3) Set up a date for your arrival, and discuss contract
I'm sure au pair in america has this same thing, but for aupair-world, there was a contract that was already set up through the website that you and the family fill out together. Also, before I forget, when you sign up, in addition to listing where you want to go, you also list for how long. Many people do 3 months because they do it for summer, plus you don't need a visa for a country if you are traveling there for less than 3 months (important to remember!!! no need to go through the painful visa process if you don't need to!) but I put 1 year because I want to travel for a long time and just have fun for awhile since I'm freshly graduated from college; I gots no where to be! The world is literally my oyster ;P. As for the contract, its sooo easy, its like a single page. The family fills out mainly everything because they have to put their address, what they will pay you, what they expect from you, how long they expect you to stay (also for aupair-world, in the contract it is stated that an au pair can leave anytime they wish-say you ended up not liking it-so no need to feel like you're trapped!) and thats pretty much it. I had to just put where I was born, my address, and sign it lmao. Also- we decided that we would Fed-Ex the copies of the contract to each other to have fresh signatures just so we wouldn't have any problems with the Consulate (Consulate of Spain in D.C.) being picky about fresh documents. You want to make sure you each have a copy of the contract, as well as one for your visa application form if you do end up applying for one.
4) Collect everything you need for the visa (the most painful part)
Skip this part if you want to travel for less than 3 months since you don't need a visa; otherwise, you better sit down, because this my friends, is a rough ride.Now, it doesn't seem like much at first, but once you take processing time, and time differences, getting some of these things can be a real pain in the arse. Because I live in Maryland, for some reason I am only able to get a student or work visa, whereas in a few states you can an actual Au Pair visa. They have all this information on the aupair-world website, just click under the "for au-pairs section". I imagine obtaining an au pair visa is easier than a student one, but who knows, getting a visa is worse than going to the DMV.
For a student visa you need:
- Visa application form signed out (this was easy to find, the link was on the aupair-world website, but you just look at any embassy/consulate website for any country here in the U.S. to find it)
- Your passport, the original and a copy of it
- 1 recent passport size photo (you can get this done at any CVS)
- Letter from your guardian saying that they will financially support you (even though in reality you're being paid to be an au pair, plus you live with them so you really don't support yourself, but whatever, you need it)
- Letter from your school saying you have been accepted, with it showing how long you will be attending and you have to take 20 hours of classes per week AT LEAST. This was hard to get because what school states the hours on an acceptance letter? I just brought in my receipts from the classes and forced them to accept it pretty much, it honestly just depends on who you get to help you, some people are more of sticklers than others. This is also sucky because you have to pretty much be a full-time student just to be there legally. I'm just taking normal language classes just for the visa, plus it'll just make my Spanish even better; hey, it never hurts to be bilingual. Also, this is for Spain at least, the school has to be certified by this certain thing for it to be good, but my family knew exactly what I meant and its pretty much any real establishment. I'm pretty much going to their community college even though it is a literal castle (I love Europe)
- Cash of exactly $160.00 to pay for the application to be processed (all for literally a Spanish passport looking sticker in my passport... -.-)
- Police Record, and a stamp of approval on it from the Department of Security (I think thats it, but now I barely remember, but they had the info at the consulate for me). Okay so on the visa website it never says anything about the stamp, which is BS, but you need it if you're in the DMV region because you're stuck going to the DC consulate and they need it. Getting police records is easy, I just looked it up online and looked for nearest police stations that handle them and it was a simply process. Getting the same literally took 10 seconds, but I had to go all the way to effing Annapolis, which is NOT close to DC, to get the Department of Security to stamp it with this huge gold sticker. They will only accept your police record if you have the damn sticker, so if you're not from the east coast, I would advise trying to call ahead to see if you need it on yours.
- Last but not least, a doctors note specifically stating you are of sound mind, and sound body to travel and they give their approval.
- *You can also bring a prepaid document envelope with your address on it for the Consulate to send you your passport, as opposed to you having to come back to pick it up, but make sure you factor in extra time for it to be delivered. I just went back and got it because I already cut it close and I didn't want to worry about it taking long to deliver or getting lost.
*The visa takes about 3-4 weeks (if its around the holidays, longer obviously) to process, so also prepare for this; you don't just get it once you hand them all the above requirements*
**also, they will tell you this, and they will give at least the doctors note to you because they don't keep the original copy of the police record in the initial process; but you you need to take with you the original copy of the doctors note that your doctor and the consulate signed and stamped for you, as well as the original copy of the police record with the gold stamp on it, with you to wherever you're traveling in order to show (alongside your passport with the visa in it) at a police station once you get there in exchange for your student ID card; thats pretty much your visa after the fact, you don't really need to carry your passport around with you to prove you're there legally after you get that card**
I know it looks like a lot, and it is, so give yourself a solid 4 if not 5 months+ to get all these things ready and prepared. Mainly applying to the school and hearing back from them was the hardest because it takes a long time, plus european school online portals are different from college here, plus its all in a different language and though google chrome translate can help, its not easy. Additionally, my login and password kept messing up for the school so I had to email this woman back and forth and get like 5 different logins before it worked. But honestly my experience has been a semi-horror story, but I know others whose process went smoothly and it was fine. At least you know you'll be able to pull through, no matter what struggles the process throws ya because if my anxious self can do it, anyone can. Also with he blog post, you get to know all the secret stuff to do and how to make the process even easier because obviously the Consulates visa requirements we're not nearly in depth enough, so, you're welcome ;P uwu
5) Now, you wait!
After you apply for your visa, you just kick back and relax until its done processing for roughly a month, and then you either wait for it to be delivered, or to go pick it up! Then its just a matter of time until you're packing all your bags and looking at how heavy everything is and thinking to yourself, what I'm about to do is crazy, but so much fun!
Here are some additional tips about getting ready to embark on your new adventure:
- Less is more: seriously, maybe if you're only going for 3 months then this won't be such a challenge, but I'm going for at least a year! This means bringing all clothes for all types of seasons and weather. Plus, since I'm living there so long, I wanted to bring some things to make it my home. I wasn't lying when I said I packed my amiibos and super sonico figure lol! Duffle bags are your best friend, they're super lightweight and you can cram lots into them, but they're really only good for clothes because you know how airports are and they toss around your bag like how Nani tosses my salad. You're gonna want at least one solid and strong suitcase with hard sides to protect all your valuable items because they're less likely to get destroyed with all that protection. I donated a lot of my clothes as well as only packed my favorite items that I KNEW I would wear, so I wouldn't end up shlepping around more weight than I needed to. The rest is in storage at my parents house. I have one solid suitcase and one duffle bag for clothes and everything else I need and want to take, and its just enough. Remember I'm going for a year so if I can condense to that much, you definitely can do even less and you're not staying nearly as long. Plus remember to leave space cause you're gonna wanna buy clothes and stuff from wherever you're staying. I also have one travel backpack that I'm putting all my super valuables in to make sure they don't get lost/stolen/damaged (ie. laptop, iPod, iPad, medications (make sure to pack at least one month worth in your carry-on just in case they lose your bags, also if you're on a long flight, you'll need your med's at some point anyways), documents, passport, wallet, boarding passes, and anything else you can think of.
- Be Organized: during the whole collection of requirements process and even afterwards, make sure you keep everything together! You need many things and they all take some time to get and hold a level of importance, so you really don't want to risk losing anything.
- Save up lots of money: Even though I got a good amount of money because of college graduation (hey, its a big stepping stone) I still saved up lots of money from my catering job I maintained while being in school so that I would have a good amount of savings to use for travel or for any emergencies, even though I'm going to just try and only spend the money I earn from my au pair job because I personally would want a lot of savings when I eventually come back or move on from being an au pair.
- Get a bank account for that country: They have a Santander bank branch here in MD, and since that is the bank in lots of places in Europe, I got one so that it won't charge me a lot to process money, and also to have a bank in Europe to deposit my payments into. You may have to wait till you get there to do this though if you don't have local branches in your area
- Get a phone there, don't pay for an international plan: International plans are expensive and you shouldn't spend all that money to cling onto your phone from here. There are multiple phone companies in Europe and the eastern hemisphere, Vodafone for example, where you can get a new phone. Obviously I'm not sure what the phone plans are like there, but once I do know, I'll add it in here!
- Bring presents for your new family!!: So as some of you who don't live in the U.S. know, its hard to get certain things from here. My family says that HBO and stuff doesn't work in Spain for some reason and its annoys them, so I got them all the seasons of Game of Thrones and The Wire on DVD because they really want to watch them and they were on sale. I also got children books in english for Maria, and I plan on getting all of them D.C./MD stuff because who doesn't like the classic touristy stuff.
Well as always, I hope you guys enjoyed!! Please tweet me or comment below if you have any more questions that you want to ask!
Love you guys and thanks for reading :)
-K
