Au Pair Cultural Exchange
The Au Pair experience has been around for almost 50 years and it was started to encourage young people to travel and to gain "Cultural Experiences" of life in other countries and to improve their language skills.
How it works in practice, is that a host family in one country invites a young person from another country, to stay in their family home and to share in their family life. The family should treat an Au Pair as though they were a visting family member, which means that an Au Pair would be invited to eat meals with the family, particpate in family outings and events and to share in family conversations so that they experience life as a member of a UK family and to build their language skills.
Whilst an Au Pair is staying with the family, they should also gets the opportunity to visit places of interest in the UK and to attend language courses on their days off.
In return for the family providing a "Cultural Exchange" opportunity, an Au Pair agrees to provide help and support around the family home for an agreed number of hours per week, and for which the host family pays an Au Pair an allowance (this is sometimes referred to as "pocket money").
The type of jobs that an Au Pair is expected to help with around the family home are also restricted to what you would expect a family member to undertake. Our section on Matching Expectations provides a family with more detailed guidance on the types of duties you should expect an Au Pair to undertake. Bunters is a member of BAPAA which has a code of conduct for its members with the intention of ensuring that Au Pairs are not used by families to undertake jobs that are inappropriate.
Regulations
Until November 2008, the Immigration Regulations defined Au Pairs as a specific category with a set of conditions governing both Au Pairs and families. This Immigration category no longer exists.
Most Au Pairs now come to the UK under the governance of the UK’s “Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006” which implement the European Union’s Freedom of Movement for Citizens under Directive 2004/38/EC.
We can discuss with you how the EEA Regulations apply to Au Pairs after you have registered with us.
Where can Au Pairs come to the UK from?
Under the Freedom of Movement Regulations Au Pairs can come to the UK from the following countries:
Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Irish Republic, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
plus those referred to in the Regulations as the "A8" countries:
Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia
Bulgarian & Romanian Nationals
There are specific provisions and processes which apply before an Au Pair can be engaged from either of these 2 countries, please contact us for details, if you are thinking of engaging an Au Pair from either of these two countries.
