Can Albanian girls come to the UK as au pairs?

[aprilshowerssoon]

Hi. Will post later for advice on the nightmare I am having finding an au pair at the moment (honestly my experiences would not be believable if I had not been through them) but I seem to be being approached by a lot of Albanian girls looking for a position. I cannot seem to find information as to whether they can come to work as au pairs as they are not part of the EU scheme Does anyone know please? Thanks very much.

Hello, no they can't. Au pairs need to be either EU or able to get a Tier 5 Visa. So Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians (also Japanese and South Koreans).

Whether the situation will change if we pull out of the EU?

Are you looking for a September start. I've noticed that there isn't a huge amount of choice on au pair world at the moment. We'd pencilled in late April to find our next au pair.

Thanks for the confirmation - I thought this might be the case.

My third au pair in the last 3 months is leaving tomorrow (excuses have ranged from mystery family illnesses ["sorry I don't want to discuss what this might be"] requiring going home, suspected heart conditions (self diagnosed by the girl with no previous history and no visit to the GP here). etc etc. This one arrived 2 weeks ago and took to her bed within 3 days. She now says she wants to go home. I have no help now for the whole Easter holidays and it will probably cost me my job this time.

I am not sure what is going on. We have never had an issue finding lovely reliable girls before that have really been part of our family but I have unfortunately found 3 girls in a row now that seem to think they are here to lounge around and do nothing at all.

And no sorry looking for someone that can start NOW (see above reasons) not September. Thanks very much.

What a nightmare!

Try posting on your local au pair Facebook page. There may be someone whose host family is away for Easter and wants to earn a bit of extra cash, its not ideal, but it'll a least give you a bit of time to get someone good. You may even find someone who wants to move families.