General Questions and answers for host families

The first step will be for you to tell us your requirements and ideas. To do this, use our registration form.

We then search our database, as well as that of our partner agencies and agents abroad, for suitable au pairs and send you a selection of profiles. We carry out the entire placement process professionally and carefully to ensure that we find the perfect au pair for you.

Once you have found and selected suitable candidates and the placement order has been drawn up, we will organize contact between you and potential AuPairs so that you have the opportunity to get to know each other and decide whether the chemistry is right. Our team will work closely with you and your AuPair to ensure that your needs and expectations are met and that both you and your AuPair have a positive time.

As soon as you have chosen your AuPair, the AuPair contract will be drawn up. We will initiate this for you and send it to you for signature.

Once the complete documents have been received, the AuPair program will be opened and the relevant applications will be submitted to the responsible authorities.

We recommend 4-5 photos of you as a family in which you and your children are clearly recognizable.

If you want parts of the photo to be made unrecognizable, please let us know and do not draw on the photos yourself with a black marker. Scribbled out faces look so f****ng bad!

If there are several children, their photos should also be marked with their names and ages. This makes it easier for your au pair to 'get to know' their new family.

Take advantage of the opportunity to publish your photos on our website and introduce yourself to potential au pairs.

Unfortunately, that is not possible.

The main task of an au pair is childcare. In this case, only a household helper would be considered.

Quote from "Au Pair in German Families" by the Federal Employment Agency:

"Families are defined as married couples of the opposite or the same sex, as well as unmarried couples with at least one child under the age of 18 living permanently in the household. In addition, single parents with at least one child under the age of 18 living permanently in the household are not considered families in this sense. Single people, married couples, couples or civil partnerships without children are not considered families in this sense."

Many people would like to have their AuPair yesterday.

Unfortunately, when applying for a visa for AuPairs, a large number of documents and documentation must be obtained before the AuPair program is even set up and submitted to the responsible embassy You can apply for a visa.
They are relatively generous with the processing time. It is best to make haste slowly.
From the day of application to the visa being issued, 6-8 weeks or even more can pass.

Planning the needs of an au pair early is definitely advisable.

Of course. You are welcome to state your wishes and requirements on the registration forms and we will try to meet them. However, a certain nationality should not be a fundamental criterion for selecting your au pair. When making our selection, we evaluate the candidate's suitability as an au pair for your family rather than the nationality.

Of course we take your wishes into account. However, please understand that if you wish for a certain nationality, finding a suitable au pair for your family may take a little longer.

Have you ever thought about how many different characters or people there are?

And an agency wants to sell you some 'insider tips' au pairs from a certain country? How embarrassing...
Apart from experiences with au pairs from certain countries, these agencies can't tell you anything!
Look at the countries from which these agencies get their 'super au pairs' and compare them with the supposed origins of the owners. At the very latest, then you should notice that the au pair placement here only serves the purpose of bringing your own relatives, friends or compatriots to Germany.

We are happy to tell you which au pairs and which nationalities we have had positive or negative experiences with so far. However, this is only an individual assessment. No reputable agency can guarantee that au pairs from a certain country of origin are particularly suitable.

Your intention to take in a young person from a crisis region such as the Ukraine at present is of course an honour. Therefore, the sobering realisation that there is hardly any possibility of this is certainly difficult to accept.

Refugees from crisis or war zones can apply for asylum in Germany.
The residence permit issued as a result does not initially entitle the person to take up work - not even as an au pair.
If a work permit is later issued, the people concerned will certainly want to do other jobs than being an au pair.

A regular au pair visa process would of course be an option. However, the foreign representations in countries threatened by war usually do not. closed, so that no visa applications of any kind are processed.

In your own interest, also consider any war trauma your intended au pair may have suffered and remember that war refugees in particular are faced with completely different problems than finding a job as an au pair.

When an AuPair changes, there is simply a transfer from one host family to the other. There can be many reasons for this.
A qualitative assessment of the au pair cannot of course be made in advance.
However, transfer au pairs also go through our application and assessment processes before they are released for placement.

Advantage: The au pair is already in Germany with a valid visa or residence permit and is available at relatively short notice.

Disadvantage: The au pair can only work for your family for the remaining time of the au pair year.

With a single word: NO!

This 'AuPair ID' is a completely worthless piece of laminated cardboard issued by an agency or a printed plastic card of the same category.

With this useless thing, your AuPair cannot identify themselves or claim any benefits, discounts or discounts in an official form.

Due to this obsolescence, we do not issue such things.

In principle, yes, and that should not happen.
However, sometimes unforeseeable circumstances can arise that make it impossible to comply with the maximum working hours.
As long as this is not a permanent situation, your au pair should understand this.

However, you should accommodate your au pair, show gratitude for their commitment and make sure that they have some free time in the following month.

Definitely not!

Working as an au pair is only permitted for the host family. This is also stated in the entry in their visa.
It is not permitted to "loan out" or "loan out" the au pair to other people or families.

Unfortunately not.

AuPair activities are limited to childcare and light housework.
Caring activities for adults are not permitted by law.

You should definitely stay away from such offers!

Inquire at your local authority, district office, local authority or similar. They have lists of reputable providers and suppliers.
When choosing a language school for your au pair, make sure that it offers language courses that meet the standards of the Goethe Institute.

The "language course" you have discovered is most likely just a little "chat in German" that does not lead to any kind of qualification.

Remember: Your au pair may need another Goethe certificate for their future professional career.

Sorry, unfortunately not.

The length of stay for AuPairs is limited to 12 months.

Even if your children have got used to their AuPair and the AuPair fits perfectly into your family, there is unfortunately no way to extend the au pair contract beyond the maximum permitted period.
Even later, or after a certain waiting period, it is not possible for the AuPair to come to Germany as an AuPair a second time.

If the AuPair comes from an EU member state, they enjoy freedom of movement within the EU and can continue to stay in Germany. However, the activity as an AuPair ends after one year at the latest.
You could only continue to employ your former AuPair yourself as a nanny/housekeeper or similar afterwards.

Very little...

As with many certifications, this simply means:

Money changed hands.

Quality promises are made that are rarely realized in reality, or should be self-evident for a properly functioning agency. Thus, the resulting quality is not really different from that of a 'non-certified' agency.

And even the possession of a less meaningful 'seal of quality' only serves to attract uncritical customers who do not ask themselves why they have to pay a commission of €500 or more.

It actually exists...

A fact that the operators themselves were probably surprised by.
In 2022, as part of our own quality management, we audited the so-called "emergency hotline for au pairs", called there and reported an 'emergency'.

The content of the emergency was authentic and a classic case of exploitation. A young woman from an African country had found and organized her au pair position on the Internet on her own.
With her host family, she had to live under almost undignified conditions and do work that was not appropriate for an au pair. In order to prevent her from attending the language course and to keep her available during this time, obstacle after obstacle was put in her way.
The entire au pair relationship was one big violation of the au pair contract itself, of all legal requirements and guidelines.

On the other end of the line came a surprised female voice, who probably hadn't expected the dusty phone in the corner to ring. After the lady had received the description of the emergency, she explained that she would pass the case on and someone would call back.

The next day, another au pair agency called back, who was inadequately or not at all informed about the nature of the emergency.
The repeated description of the case met with little interest. Instead of providing help for the problem presented, they talked some mushy nonsense about how tragic it was and how little could be done...
Then they repeated a little advertising slogan about regional partner agencies and left the person seeking help to deal with their own problems, or the au pair to deal with their own problems.

This was the help of the "Emergency Hotline for AuPairs".