Hiring an au pair is an excellent way to provide care for your children. If your childcare needs are short-term, you have several ways to go about hiring a short-term au pair.

First, when hiring any sort of au pair, you need to determine what qualifications, personality, and experience that you need. In terms of personality, you want to find an au pair that comes across as loving and patient with your children. You should try to find someone that is cheerful, and has a generally positive attitude and outlook. You want an au pair that is oriented toward children and families. Finally, you want to make sure that she seems to have good old fashioned common sense. In addition, There are certain skills you should make sure that your au pair possesses. If you have infants in the home, you should be certain that she has had some experience in caring for infants. Checking an au pair’s references is one of the best ways to determine what kinds of skills she may possess. If possible, you should choose an au pair who has had some paid work experience, whether in child care or in another area. This will help you determine the potential au pair’s work ethic, and whether she enjoys working or not. In addition, your au pair should have at least basic first aid knowledge, and you should help her to receive child and infant CPR training if she does not have it.

You may wish to look for other requirements in an au pair. These can include things such as no smoking, no alcohol or drug use, and good health and grooming habits. You might look for a high school graduate, and/or some college or nanny type coursework. Also, it is often best to choose an au pair who has lived away from home for a while, so as not to worry about losing her to homesickness.

Once you’ve determined what sorts of qualifications you are looking for, you need to determine what type of visa you would like to use for the au pair. In the United States, an au pair visa, known as the J-1 visa, is limited to a specific period from three months to one year. This type of visa may be ideal for your short-term au pair, however, the up-front costs of hiring an au pair for three months are often the same as hiring an au pair for a full year. If you would like to select an au pair independently, you can also work through an independent immigration attorney to obtain an H1-B visa. This type of visa is a regular work visa, and does not have the educational requirements that the J-1 visa has. The H-1B visa typically requires the applicant to possess a bachelor’s degree or higher, and cannot be issued for an actual “au pair” position; rather, for this type of visa, the position would have be listed as a home-school teacher, educator, or other type of service that is not solely childcare related. You also might be able to sponsor a student for an F-1 visa program who will work with your children. These types of students will carry 12 hours of college credit, and generally work for no more than 20 to 25 hours per week in childcare.

If you need an au pair for a period shorter than three months, you will not be able to use the J-1 visa. You will have to try to get an H1-B visa approved.

Posted in Child Care Issues

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