Philipino au pair - visa ????

[MLWfirsttimemum]

I wonder if anyone can help on this - it seems the UK border agency are not particularly keen to be clear on this question:

I am considering employing a Phillipino au pair who has been an au pair, living with my friend in Denmark (and is thus already in the EU on some sort of visa). She's keen to come to the UK as an au pair for me but I can't work out the visa regulations for Phillipinos and when I called the helpline they told me she had to get in contact with them.

Does anyone know what the regulations are likely to be around this area - is it relatively easy for her to get an 'au pair visa' (I know it isn't called that anymore) and would it be valid for 2 years?

Very grateful for any help/advice on this!

You cannot get a UK visa for philipina au pairs. Even for ones already living in the EU.

However, they can get visas for some other EU countries (Sweden and Denmark I think) and once they have a visa for an EU country then AFAIK they can travel freely between EU countries. That is the qn you should be asking the helpline.

You will not be able to renew it however, and I suspect you may have problems in registering her at local GP etc.

You will also need to check if her current visa allows her to work or not.

My honest advice would be just don't go there....It's not worth the headache.

If they're on a visa for Denmark then (if it's anything like the visa for France) they're probably restricted to working in that country for one family, under strict conditions, unless the family they're working with moves in which case they can enter the UK as a pre-existing domestic employee but then they need to have worked for the family for a certain length of time.

I looked into the portability of visas within the EU recently in case we move to the UK after hiring our au pair/nanny/childcare person and the rules are very complicated about movement for people on specific visas within the EU. In our case it was an American we were looking at but the administrative headache was just too big.

If you really like her though then ask the question squiffy suggests to the UKBA helpline.

It's now very tough to get a visa to work in the UK. The au pair category was abolished with the implementation of the tiered scheme, which requires people to have a certain number of points. In theory this makes it easier to allow in people with the skills the country needs etc but it's also made it very complicated to understand!

She needs an entirely new UK visa if she is not an EU/EEA national. And her chances of now getting one as an au pair from the Philippines is about slim to none.

What frakkin said.

Oh, and the government is introducing caps for non-EU low-skilled workers from next year.

here

Do you know what kind of visa she's on at the moment?

UK opted out of the Schengen agreement which allows freedom of movement between EU member countries.

No one can travel into the UK without having their passport or ID checked. Even if she was coming as a tourist she would need a tourist visa I would have thought so I'm sure this won't be possible.

and what frakkinup said too - if she had been working for the family for more than 12 months in Denmark then she may be able to apply for a domestic worker visa but only with the same Danish family initially..

The summarise Frak and Treesa who are both right

No.

She is not highly skilled;
she is not from a country we have reciprical youth mobility arrangments with (Jap, Can, Aus, NZ); and
she is not an EU/EEA national.

Thanks everyone - great help and feedback!