au pair

[phraedd]

I am thinking of getting an au pair and am emailing a girl from south africa.

She has asked me who pays for the flights. Is it me or her? Do we pay half each? I obviuosly won't send any money out to her but if i am respomsible for paying the flights, i will reimburse once she is here.

It depends. Some do, some don't. A flight from SA must be worth quite a lot.. like a couple of month's wages?

I personally wouldn't offer to pay this. But, some people do. You might offer to buy her flight home but not her flight here.

Yes, asking for money upfront to pay for flights is sometimes a scam. Don't do it.

I did not pay for my aupair.

I never pay. But I do pay for them to have a flight home each year if I get on well with them.

But chances are she will not be able to get here under her own steam otherwise unless she comes from a wealthy family. I spent 3 years living in Africa, and personally wouldn't get an AP from SA because they either come from a moneyed family and may well be unused to cleaning etc, or they come from a less wealthy family and you have to pay for their flight and you run the risk that they will be VERY homesick - if they haven't been to Europe before it will be a real shock for them (especially the weather) and they may feel trapped because they are so far away from home...

anyway, if you really want her you'll have to make the call on whether to risk it - she could easily waltz off after a week...

where is the best place to get an au pair from?

IMO the czechs, germans and scandinavians make good AP's

if i did go with the SA au pair, how do i check her background/history? Its not like i can get a crb and check refs verbally very easily is it?

She has said that she is happy to pay for her flights and that she would like to stay here for a year (as that is how long her visa would allow her to stay for).

With AP's you simply can't check their backgrounds because they can get friends to pretend to be referees and so on, you just have to go with gut instinct - and that applies for everyone, not just SA AP's.

But if she is now going to pay for flights (and not I presume saying she will pay you back out of her salary if you buy them now?) then you have nothign really to lose, just a lot of headaches finding a replacement if it doesn't work out.

IME you have a 50-50% chance of it workign, no matter how careful you are when hiring.

You could offer to buy her return flight (or finanical equivalent) at the end of her 12 months, hence providing her with a financial incentive not to bugger off at 8 months when you were banking on the 12 month contract.

Check what nationality the person is - as Nationals of South Africa are not able to visit the UK as an AuPair under the AuPair scheme.

They could visit under the Working Holidaymaker Scheme - Visa details

that is what she is planning on doing Nick.