Does an Au Pair Have To Live in Our House?
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Under the terms of an Au Pair Visa to the United States, your Au Pair does have to live in your house. In addition, you are required to provide a private bedroom for the Au Pair. If you do not wish to have your childcare provider living in your home, you might consider using a live-out nanny instead of an Au Pair.
Non-Live-In, or “live-out” nannies have some specific benefits. First, you have much more family privacy if your nanny doesn’t live in your home. Also, a live-out nanny is more likely to have a backup person in the event that she is ill, though this is not always the case. On the down side, you have to wait for your child care provider to arrive in the morning before you can proceed.
On the positive side, a Live-In Nanny or an Au Pair may provide many benefits. Because the child care provider is always in your home, there is less likelihood that you will have to wait for her to arrive in the mornings. There is also less likelihood for child care provider emergencies. On the negative side, there is some loss of privacy for your family with a live-in nanny, since someone who is not a member of the family is living in the house. In addition, backup care may not always be available if your live-in nanny or Au Pair is ill or on vacation. For live-in nannies and Au Pairs, there is also the added expense of room and board, although this may be reduced somewhat by a lower amount of pay.
Au Pairs and Nannies of all types provide certain benefits over other available forms of child care. With a nanny, if your child is ill, you still have childcare. Also, your day will start and end when you want it to, not when a childcare provider decides to open its doors. In addition, your child will be cared for in a familiar setting, and you can work with your nanny to tailor your childcare to your child’s needs. On the other hand, nannies can be much more expensive when compared with the other options.
There are specific benefits that, as the host family, you must provide to an Au Pair. In addition to a private bedroom, you must provide meals, a wage that will increase if the minimum wage increases, one full weekend off each month, two weeks of paid vacations, and the first $500 toward required academic coursework.
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